Forgefire Chronicles
by Natimus Prime
Summary: Rose is the last of the Forgefire, a powerful clan from a ninja village wiped out in a war. When she enrolls in the Konoha ninja academy with Uzumaki Naruto, will Konoha be able to handle her and her incredible Kekkei Genkai? AltUni, divergence preacademy
1. Stoke the Fires

General Disclaimer: you know what goes here, I know what goes here, we all know what goes here. Attempting to sue me will get you laughed at (I am unemployed and have no money), flaming me will get you ignored, and praise will get a polite thank you. I write because I enjoy the act of writing down my ideas, and if you happen to feel one way or the other about what I've written it doesn't matter to me. 

Author's Forward: You don't usually find these at the beginning, but I wanted to give readers a chance to skip over the story if it isn't their thing. This is an alternate universe, as though you couldn't guess that already. As such, differences from the canon Naruto are to be expected. Since I prefer to use the original artist's vision of a world, this will be based more on the manga than the anime. It's also a lot easier to re-read a volume in the manga to refresh your memory than it is to watch several episodes to see an entire fight.

I haven't read the first volume in a while so I'm not sure I remember correctly, but I believe Naruto and his class became Genin at age eleven and entered the academy at eight, so that's what I'm running with. Also, the story's Alternate Universe is in place to add an Original Character, Forgefire Rose. Due to the need for a location which borders both the land of fire and the land of earth, The Tetsu no Kuni(the Land of Iron) is located in the northern half of the Land of Grass. It's not terribly important that you know this, but I don't want anyone complaining that I don't know my geography. I am not planning this to be a romance-focused work (these kids are eleven!) but pairings and relationships will be determined at a later date. Now, on with the show!

Additional note on name suffixes:  
Since there's some understandable confusion, I'll post this here. I don't always use these, only when I want to make a point about the relationship between two characters.  
-san: implies respect and formality. Used with strangers and people who are not considered close friends.  
-chan: used to imply familiarity and friendship, usually used with girls, though sometimes with boys as a subtle tease. Can be insulting if used with someone who is not that close or is male.  
-kun: similar to -chan, but usually for boys. Also used by teachers when addressing students.  
-sensei: a teacher, doctor, or other professional. Implies respect.  
-sempai: a person who is higher in rank or class standing. For example, a ninth-grader would use -sempai for a tenth-grader.  
-sama: great respect. An emperor would rate a -sama from anyone. Also used when a shopkeeper is addressing customers. May be used teasingly when talking to someone who dislikes the formality (ex: naruto teasing sakura)  
-dono: used by an older servant to refer to a young heir. Sasuke would rate -dono from a family retainer, as would Hinata from adult Branch Family members, with a -sama used occasionally.  
(blank): often forgotten, not using a suffix indicates advanced familiarity, like family. It is very insulting to not use a suffix if you haven't earned the privilege (outside of a very serious situation, where there might not be time for honorifics).

.oO0Oo.

Fizzy Pop, Inc. Presents:  
Yet another crazy idea by Natimus Prime!

Naruto: Forgefire Chronicles

Chapter 01: Stoke the Fires

.oO0Oo.

Three years ago, Kengakure, in the Land of Iron

In the exact center of the solid iron walls of the Village Hidden in the Sword, just south of the central tower, sat a sprawling complex littered with smoking chimneys. Covering an entire block of the small town, the District of the Forgefire Clan was the site of the original founding of the ninja village in what had come to be the Land of Iron, a very minor land sharing a border with the great forests that made up much of the Land of Fire. Bustling about the complex were dozens of the Forgefire clansmen--from the youngsters running errands for their parents to the elderly who were shaping intricate patterns into ornamental armor and weapons.

To the untrained eye, it appeared a normal blacksmith's compound. But the eyes of the citizens of Kengakure were anything but untrained, and those visitors and apprentices who watched the Forgefire clan at their craft could not help but wonder at their mastery over the metal they worked. On a typical day, the people of the village would often come watch the craftmasters at their work. Here, a brawny man with hands the size of dinner plates simply grabbed a bar of heated copper, and pulled it through his fist to form a thin wire. There, a woman lifted a steel rod from a rack, and rolled it through the burning coals before bending it into a series of chain links with no seams. The old men putting patterns into the Daimyo's new suit of ceremonial armor simply traced over the plates with their fingers, furrowing the metal behind them with a delicacy born of decades of practice in their craft. All went about their work with a smile on their face and a bounce in their step, for the sheer joy of the shaping is all that mattered to them.

The Forgefire clan was the founding clan of Kengakure for the same reason they had earned their family name: in their blood was the ability to shape metal with a touch, with no more difficulty than soft clay. They had customers from lands as distant as the Wave, far to the east, with their primary competition coming from Takumi no Sato, the village of Craftsmen. It was widely said that Takumi made equipment that was just as good as the Forgefire work, but you had to pay through the nose to get it. Oddly enough, that was true.

The Forgefire were wealthy, beloved by the people, and fair in their administration of the village and its small corps of ninja. Though not a part of the Five Kage, the Forgefire clan head was well respected by those men, and his word carried much weight with them. On a typical day, the elder Forgefire would be overseeing work orders, checking shipping records, and otherwise occupying himself as best he could.

Today was not a typical day.

None of the workers smiled. All wore a deadly serious look of concentration.

None of the work was frivolous or for mere joy. All hands shaped and folded steel, even those who had long since retired from the harder metals for the ease of soft ornamentation.

None of the products were beautiful or wondrous to behold. All products were simple, fearsome implements of war: swords, shuriken, kunai, armor, and many less recognizable forms.

The elder still sat at his desk, but his paperwork was gone. Instead, maps, battle plans, and messages from scouts and spies littered the inches-thick slab of iron, some of which were carved into its metal surface. Around him stood the clan heads of the rest of the village ninja, all looking gravely serious.

"So it is true then," one stated, his eyes covered by a strip of bandage. "We are betrayed."

The elder Forgefire sighed, and nodded his head. "By my youngest son, no less. He has sold our secrets to the warlord Setsu of the Mountain, who even now marches toward the capitol."

Another ninja, this one with a waxy pale complexion, frowned. The action seemed to stretch his skin farther than it should. "How long do we have?"

"He is but one man," another said. "Even if he is the most skilled of his generation, he can only do so much in one day. We will have time."

The Forgefire shook his head. "He can do as much in a day as any of my best may do in three. He took no stock with him, so we have a week, at most. We must move to protect the capitol immediately if we are to succeed. With travel, and leaving ourselves rested for the battle, we must depart in four days. Only the oldest civilians and the children will remain behind."

A tall, lanky man with his hair in long spikes shook his head. "We will call our brothers of the fang and claw to aid our flight. The tigers of the Ama clan have always stood with the Daimyo, and they will do so again, even if this is to be the last time. The chariots and carts will be ready in three days, and the tigers in four. Their armor was seen to just before this mess, and all is in readiness. We can make the journey in only two days."

Another man grunted, just as tall but much more massive and with earlobes stretched down to his shoulders by heavy earrings. "The elephants of the Omana clan are also with you. We have two new mothers who must remain behind with their youngsters, but the remaining mother's bull is of age, and the elder bulls are ready for some excitement. If you can spare a man to refit some of their armor, they will be ready to go in five days, and can make the journey in two."

The Forgefire nodded. "Thank you both. I would never presume to order your clans' animals to what will surely be their deaths, but if they are willing we can certainly use them. Between the Omana elephants and the more numerous Ama tigers, we will be able to move much more material to the battle. I have a man who can be sent to handle the elephants' armor, our stock of swords is sufficient to completely rearm the village and the army and he is unsuited to the more detailed work."

Four other clan heads stepped forward. One, with dark brown skin and a blindfold wrapped around his bald head, said in a deep voice, "Our nins stand ready, Forgefire-sama. All the shinobi of the village have been briefed, the infirm and elderly have been sent to our allies in Kusagakure, and the children are being organized by the civilian mothers. They should be ready to depart within two days."

Another nod from the village leader dismissed him. "That is good. I am glad that we are ready early, it means my people will have more time to prepare the remaining siege defenses. My eldest wishes to complete his little project."

"If he succeeds, we will have a potent weapon," one of the assembled shinobi remarked.

"Yes," responded the Forgefire, sighing heavily. "But the art has been lost to time in these years of peace for our family. When we ran from the first Nin War, many of those secrets were sealed or destroyed to prevent our rivals from learning them. Still, even partially complete there will be a great advantage to us. For now, I can use anyone you have to spare down in the forges, we need more people to move raw material and finished product so my people may focus on their work."

The assembled shinobi all bowed, and left the office quietly. The Elder Forgefire, who was starting to forget his own first name now that he had not heard it for nearly forty years, slumped in his chair. "I can only hope I am not ordering them all to their doom."

.oO0Oo.

Two days later

The Elder Forgefire lay in his bed, unable to rise from the pain and weakness wracking his body with spasms and coughing. By his bedside were his last healthy subjects, the only other people to have avoided the rapid, deadly poison that had swept through the village in a cloud of smoke. He knew his traitorous son was behind the act, having taught him how to expel the most dangerous fumes and toxins from metals as part of the clan's safety practices, now used to deadly effect. Wheezing, he turned to his niece, who was kneeling by his bedside, her face pale. "There is not much time, Nozomi. I'm afraid I must cough cough send you on one last mission."

Forgefire Nozomi bowed her red-haired head. "Uncle, I can't-"

"I will not argue with you!" the elder interrupted voice strong and forceful, before collapsing back into his bed. "cough We must safeguard the clan scrolls. You and Rose are the last able-bodied members of our clan. cough cough wheeze Run, take the scrolls, and get away from here. My son will come to finish us all soon, you must not let him get his hands on them!"

The long, dark red tresses of Nozomi's daughter Rose were lifted in a slight breeze. "But what about you, grandpa?" the six year old asked, fear in her brilliant green eyes, now glistening with tears. "We can't just leave you here!"

The elder Forgefire lifted himself into a sitting position, leaning against the wall by his simple bed. "Don't worry, little Rose. Grandpa's going to stay here, and make sure that your Uncle Akama gets what he deserves. I ought to last that long." Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he turned to Nozomi. "The scrolls are in the box under my bed. Take them and go."

Tears streaming down her face, Nozomi nodded, bending down to retrieve the large aluminum box, three feet long and a foot square on each end, no seams or openings. Taking a handful of steel nails from the elder's bedside table, she shaped them into a small harness, and put the box across Rose's shoulders, shaping it with her hands until it settled easily on her child's strong frame.

"Come on, Rose. Grandpa has to gather his strength, and we need to gather some money and supplies. But we need to be quick."

Rose glanced back at the elder, now resting against the wall in a lotus position, eyes closed in meditation. A smile graced his face as she turned back, walking out the door for what she knew would be the last time.

Two hours later, as Nozomi and Rose left the town by way of a temporary hole in the solid iron wall, they heard a commotion from the elder's tower. Turning back, both watched in horror as the tower--which was itself made of solid iron--suddenly imploded, collapsing into a solid lump of metal barely the height of a man. The metal began to glow red hot, then spread out in a puddle of molten iron that enveloped the whole town. Of the Elder or his son, there was no sign.

.oO0Oo.

A few hours later, the border of the Land of Iron leading to the Land of Earth

"Hurry, Rose! The Warlord's men are right behind us!" The older redhead was gasping for breath as she desperately worked a set of pedals on a four wheeled vehicle, frantically trying to push more of herself into the contraption's chain drive.

The tiny young girl beside her, barely six years old, was straining against a second set of pedals, doing her best to add to the pedal-cart's speed, but only barely able to match her mother. Their conveyance--shaped out of a chunk of Kengakure's very walls and reinforced with what lightweight metals they had found along the way--was a sturdy, lightweight vehicle, one which had given them a serious lead on their foot-bound pursuers.

At least, they thought it had.

The warlord had sent men on horses ahead of them, preventing them from reaching the southern border with the Land of Grass--and thus their planned escape through there to allies in Kusagakure--and with more men arriving from the east--the direction of the border with the Land of Fire, and within it their allies in Konoha--they had been forced into enemy territory.

The Forgefire clan had once been members of the Stone, before the first great Shinobi War. After the war, they had declared that they would no longer use their bloodline for battle, preferring to support others with their forge work instead. The Tsuchikage at the time had exiled them, stating that if they ever set foot in the Land of Earth they were to be killed. To this day, no one from the Land of Earth bought Forgefire goods, and Nozomi knew that entering Iwa territory was as good as death, but they had no choice.

Approaching the well-marked border, she saw that, indeed, a trio of Iwa nins was headed straight for them, but let out a sigh of relief when two of the nins took up a guard position behind the car, halting the warlord's men. The third landed on a cross-brace and bent to speak to the two Forgefires.

"We've heard about the warlord invading Kengakure, but we didn't expect survivors. The Tsuchikage has allowed any refugees safe passage through the Land of Earth, so long as they are not of the Forgefire. What is your clan?"

Nozomi shivered, but spoke. "Clan Ama," she lied, hoping what little training she'd had would be enough to fool the distracted Iwa nin.

"And your bright red hair? Green eyes?" the nin asked. It was one of the Forgefire's biggest traits, red hair and green eyes.

Nozomi realized the shinobi wasn't fooled, but tried to recover. "M-my mother was originally from Konohagakure, her hair was p-pink, and she had green eyes." Indeed, one of the Haruno clan had visited them not long ago, on duty from the Daimyo to commission a new set of armor. "Father had brown hair, so the c-colors just sort of m-mixed." She knew this wasn't working, so she began building chakra to transmute the cross-brace into a spike through the nin's heart.

"Lies." The man's smile was hidden by a cloth mask, but Nozomi could feel it anyway. "Perhaps we can take your bloodline from you, as payment for breaking our laws, Forgefire," the shinobi chuckled.

Nozomi sent a pulse of chakra through the metal, but the transmutation went awry as the Stone Nin stabbed her in the shoulder with a kunai. The spike of metal killed the nin, but also dissolved, along with the entire cross-brace, as Nozomi slumped in her seat, shock setting in along with chakra drain. Rose was the only one pedaling, and the other Iwa nins were turning to catch up to them, having dispatched the warlord's men. Rose, panicking, ignored the pedals beneath her feet. She was young, but the Forgefire clan started training their children in their blood abilities as soon as they were old enough to talk. Accidentally cutting yourself on a knife is one thing, but turning a spoon into a knife and ending up holding the sharp end of the blade is quite another!

And so, using the control and training she had developed, Rose thrust her power into the wheels and cogs of their little cart, and set them spinning as fast as she could, turning the cart around to face due east, where the slowly setting sun would be behind them. Nozomi clutched at her shoulder, but managed to add her power to her daughter's, and the iron cart suddenly shot across the barren plain, leaving the Iwa nins far behind.

.oO0Oo.

The next dawn found an exhausted pair of people rolling slowly across the border of the Land of Fire, one unconscious and the other pedaling feebly. The Iwa shinobi had given up the chase once the pair had crossed back into the Land of Iron, their alliance with the warlord forbidding them from interfering. The warlord's men were mounted, but the horses were tired from their hard ride, and also fell behind quickly. With their speed, they had quickly lost their pursuers in the rolling hills of Tetsu no Kuni, rolling along a well-used travel trail which hid their tracks.

Nozomi's wound had been bound up with some cloth strips torn from her shirt sleeve, held in place by a metal plate smoothed over her skin and under her arm. Still, the exhaustion of depleting her chakra to escape the Stone combined with her blood loss had knocked her out hours ago, leaving a tired and sore Rose the increasingly difficult task of pedaling the cart. Her small shoulders still bore the case containing the Forgefire clan scrolls.

A trio of ninja swept up to them through the trees, their hitai-ate bearing the mark of the Leaf. One stepped forward and raised a hand. "Hold up there, girl. Who are you?"

Trembling with exhaustion and fear, Rose whimpered, "I'm Rose. Please, momma's hurt!"

Trading glances, the ninjas relaxed their guard. "Don't worry, we'll help her if we can. What happened?"

Rose suddenly felt lightheaded, the exertions of the day finally catching up with her. "Village... dead... grandpa... running... warlord chased us... ninjas attacked us... help..." and with that, Rose collapsed, unable to do anything more, but still half-awake.

The ninjas quickly secured the two girls to their seats, and two began pushing the cart to the closest town, while the third, their leader, checked the girls over for wounds. Seeing blood seeping from under the plate on the older girl's shoulder, he tried to remove the obstruction but met with no success. Finally, he managed to cut away the band under her arm, and winced when he saw the state of the wound.

"Kunai stab, deep. This one might not last much longer, looks like the wound might be infected." Looking closer, he added, "Might be poisoned too. Poor kid, her mom might not make it after all."

One of the ninjas pushing the cart interjected, "They're Forgefire, no mistake. My money's on Iwa nins attacking them. Not like the country's stable right now."

The leader nodded. "Yeah. We got word of the attack in Tetsu no Kuni yesterday. Setsu of the Mountain even sent men around the village ahead of time, to kill the evacuees heading to Konoha. These two are probably the only survivors of the Forgefire clan." Noting the paleness of Nozomi's face, he added, "Let's step it up, gentlemen. This one's in seriously bad shape. The village is only an hour or two away at a fast run, but we'll have to carry them. Kuma, you keep with their cart and get it to the village when you can. We'll get these two to the hospital." The leader and one of his subordinates carefully picked up the two exhausted Forgefire clanswomen and immediately disappeared into the trees.

.oO0Oo.

Rose awoke in an unfamiliar room that stank of disinfectants. Trying to sit up, she felt the peculiar bone-deep weariness that only comes with chakra exhaustion. Managing to glance around with her eyes, she noted the multitude of metal instruments, including several objects that could only be scalpels. With a bit of relief, she noted that the clan scrolls were safely stored by her bed. Someone came in shortly, confirming Rose's guess that she was in a hospital. Judging by the Hitai-ate the medic-nin was wearing, she'd reached the border with Konoha after all.

"Where's my Okaasan?" she croaked, throat dry.

The medic-nin glanced away, not meeting Rose's green eyes. "She was in very bad shape when she came in. The kunai wound itself was simple enough to treat, but the poison in the wound had already done its work, and her chakra levels are lethally low. I'm very sorry. We did all we could, but she won't last the night."

Rose managed to force herself upright slightly, tears stinging in her eyes. "I wanna see her! She can't be dying!"

The medic-nin frowned sadly, but nodded. "I'll get you a wheelchair and take you to her. She's been drifting in and out of consciousness, but there's no reason why you can't be with her. Just don't try to get up when we get there, okay? You really wore yourself out, and you need to rest."

Rose nodded, and when the woman returned with a small wheelchair, she allowed herself to be gently strapped into the thing. She barely had the energy to hold her head up, but seeing her mother laying lifeless on the hospital bed in the next room caused to to let out a mournful sob. Nozomi's eyes opened, and she gave her daughter a weak smile.

"Rose..."

"Momma!" Rose managed to embrace her mother, who was unable to do the same.

"I'm so sorry, Rose," Nozomi whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks. "Momma isn't going to make it back from this one. You know the vow our family took about being shinobi when we founded the village, right?"

Rose nodded, confused. "Yes Momma. 'As long as the village stands, the Forgefire will not be shinobi, only craftsmen.'"

Nozomi nodded, then coughed, blood staining her lips. Rose wiped it away with a tissue the medic-nin handed her, and Nozomi smiled. "The village stands no more, Rose. You, and possibly your traitorous uncle, are the only Forgefire left. Kengakure is gone."

Rose felt the tears falling, and did nothing to stop them. "But you're still alive Momma! You'll get better! You have to!" She buried her face in her mother's chest, sobbing.

Nozomi couldn't feel anything below her neck, and thus was unable to comfort her daughter. Her breathing was beginning to come in sharp pants, and her time was running out. Voice straining, she wheezed out her final words. "Listen to me, Rose. This isn't your fault. There's nothing you could have done. Not now. But someday, you WILL be strong. And when you are, don't let revenge cloud your mind. Vengeance won't bring them back, and it will only make you suffer more in the end.

"Live a full life, find someone who loves you, have a family. Don't let the flames of the Forgefire be put out by scum like Setsu of the Mountain. That is the way for you to be happy. That's all I want for you, my sweet Rose. Be happy, so those who can't be with you and share your happiness will smile on you from heaven..." Nozomi trailed off, her body slowly growing limp, as her eyes began to glaze over.

Rose continued to sob into her mother's breast, even as she heard Nozomi's heartbeat begin to fade. The medic-nin quietly left the room, having seen this heartbreaking scene all too often in a village full of shinobi. Sliding the door shut, she left the youngster to her grief.

.oO0Oo.

Rose fought down her tears as her mother's ashes were brought to her in a small metal vase with a carving of a sword with flames behind it, the symbol of the Forgefire clan. It had only been a few days, but the final rights had been delayed while Rose had read through her clan's history scrolls to find the proper traditions for burial.

It had not been a pleasant experience, rereading her clan's history and knowing that it had all come to an end. Still, she fought down her tears. 'Momma said I should be happy since the rest of the clan can't.'

The Hokage himself handed over the silver urn, made by a recovered Rose from a bit of her mother's jewelry, according to the directions in her family scrolls. Rose had wanted to make sure that at least one of her family got buried right, since those at the village would never get the chance.

Old man Sarutobi smiled sadly as he gave over the little urn, crouching down to look Rose in the eyes. "It's all right to cry, you know," he said. "It's better to let your sadness go, so you can be happy again."

Rose nodded, but her eyes cleared, the tears that had threatened moments before banished. "I'm done crying now. Momma's gone, but she wanted me to be happy, for all the people who can't anymore."

The Sandaime Hokage nodded again. "That's a good way to honor them, Rose." He smiled a little brighter, and said, "Now, what will you do? Your village is gone, but if you like, you can stay here in Konoha as long as you want."

Rose smiled shyly. "Can I?"

Sarutobi just grinned. "Of course you can! In fact, I believe I know someone who would like to take you into his home. Tekkou Toushou, our village's best weapon smith, has a daughter a year older than you, named Tenten. Why don't we go meet him, eh?"

Rose nodded, smiling happily. "Hai!" she agreed.

The old man stood up, knees protesting the movement slightly. Then, holding out his hand, he led the small girl through the village streets. 'So young, to have lost so much,' he mused. 'In a few more months, she'll be ready for the shinobi academy if she wants to go. If that is her decision, I'll see to it she is enrolled.'

Not long after leaving the crematorium, the pair arrived at a narrow storefront near the village forests, with an enormous chimney in the back. A banner over the door declared the place to be the 'Heaven's Forge,' which made Rose giggle. Entering through the open doorway, they were greeted by a young girl not much older than Rose, who bowed and said, "Welcome, Hokage-sama!" Straightening, she saw Rose and exclaimed, "Ah! You must be Forgefire-san! Otousan is working at his forge in the back." Bowing again, she said, "Follow me, please."

Following the girl with the twin buns in her hair, Rose and the Hokage found themselves in a simple but efficient forge room, where a tall man with coal-black hair and steely gray eyes was hammering a kunai on a small anvil. Seeing his guests, he made a half-bow and said, "Greetings, Hokage-sama, Forgefire-san. Just a moment, I'm almost done with this one." A few more strikes, and he doused the hot steel in a bucket, before tossing it onto a pile with a half-dozen others.

Rose giggled at being called 'Forgefire-san' like her father, then quieted as she remembered that he had died in the village, victim of her uncle's poison cloud. She managed to keep her smile though, as she thought of him watching over her, and how happy he'd be to know she would be living with someone so much like him.

Toushou took a towel and cleaned the soot from his face, then turned to regard Rose. "So, my little flower, Hokage-sama tells me you're looking for somewhere to stay?"

Rose nodded, her smile broadening. "Hai, Tekkou-san."

"Well then, I think you'll fit in just perfect here," he said with a grin. "I studied my art under a Forgefire from your grandparents' generation, it's part of what makes me the best in Konoha. It would be an honor to repay my old master by taking in one of his own." He held out a bar of steel, one of the lumps he used in making kunai. "Why don't you show me something, eh? As I recall, they start teaching young over in Kengakure."

The Hokage hummed to himself. "Yes, I've heard about your family's Kekkei Genkai, but never gotten the chance to see it in action. Would you please?"

Rose bowed to the Hokage, then took the lump of steel. "Sure! I just started doing pre-forge work last month with my uncle. We apprentice for a year just doing the basic shaping while the master does the final work." Focusing on the metal in her hands, she folded her hand around it in several seals, then murmured, "Kinzokuton: Tankou."(metal release: metal worker)

Grasping the bar on the ends, Rose pulled it out, stretching and thinning the bar, before folding it back over itself. Kneading the bar like bread dough, she folded the steel over and over, until it was so tough to pull it wouldn't stretch any more. Then, running her fingers over it, she squeezed the metal until it took the shape of a tube. Squeezing some more, then pulling, she formed one end into a ring, then a handle, leaving an uneven lump for the blade. After smoothing the ring, she pinched the tip of the kunai, pulling it out to its proper length. A quick brush of the fingers over the surfaces formed the distinctive squid-shaped blade, and running pinched fingers over the corners sharpened the edges. Sweating visibly, Rose held the new kunai in both hands, formed a few seals around it with her fingers, and intoned, "Kinzokuton: Rakusei." (metal release: be complete) The kunai took on a dull shine as its surface polished itself, the edges hardened, and Rose gripped it, checking its balance.

Toushou held out his hand. "May I?" Gently lifting the kunai from Rose, he tested an edge against his thumb. When it drew blood at the slightest touch, he raised an eyebrow. "How do you get it so sharp?" He took a length of gauze from Tenten, who had fetched it from a medical kit on the wall.

Rose blushed. "It's part of our ability. Stroking the edges while using chakra aligns the crystals in the metal so the sharpest edges are along the cutting edge, instead of every which way. So it's sharper and doesn't get dull as quickly. But you can't sharpen it like a normal kunai, or you ruin the edge. You have to take it back to a Forgefire to have it sharpened."

Toushou nodded. "This is very finely made indeed." Tossing the kunai to his daughter, he said, "Tenten, what do you think?"

Tenten's eyes lit up as she hefted the kunai into a throwing stance. "This is perfect!" she exclaimed, then hurled the kunai at a convenient target on a tree in the yard. It stuck dead center on the bullseye, and Tenten turned to Rose with a huge grin on her face. "You're way better than Otousan! Can you make shuriken too?"

Toushou laughed. "Easy, Tenten! I'm sure she'll have time to make plenty of things for you once she settles in." He turned to Rose. "You are going to move in with us, aren't you? It would be an honor to have you here."

Rose smiled, wiping some of the sweat off her face. "I would love to, Tekkou-san."

Toushou waved an admonishing finger at her. "Now, now, we can't have you being all formal if you're moving in. If you're not comfortable with calling me Otousan, at least call me Toushou."

Rose bowed, smiling shyly. "Arigato, Toushou-san."

Tenten giggled, and grabbed Rose's hand. "Come on! I wanna show you around the house! Then we can go see the village!" As the two of them raced off, the Hokage chuckled. Toushou smiled, pleased. "It'll do my Tenten good to have someone else around the house. Ever since her mother passed on two years back, it's been real rough on her, since I have to work the forge and man the store at the same time."

The Hokage smiled back. "And you knew her village, even if it was a decade ago. I think that little sense of home will help her adjust. Not to mention, you are one of the few people in Konoha who can help her with her Kekkei Genkai, being a metal worker and having some experience with the Forgefire abilities."

Toushou nodded. "Do you think she will want to become a shinobi? Tenten is really enjoying her lessons at the academy."

Sarutobi nodded. "I have a feeling she'll want to join the academy. Tenten's enthusiasm is infectious, and I expect to see Rose in the academy classes when the new term starts."

Toushou smiled, and gestured to the doorway into his home. "Can I get you some tea before you go back to the tower?"

"Thank you, no. I should go check on Uzumaki while I am already out, and I'm sure he'll want to go out for ramen."

Toushou smiled. "That kid. Tenten's in the academy already, so she's to busy to play with him, but maybe Rose would be good for him. After all, she won't have grown up with the prejudices of the rest of the villagers."

Sarutobi lowered his head with a sigh. "Let us hope. Naruto needs all the friends he can get."

.oO0Oo.

As the Hokage made the walk over to Konoha's Number-One-Loudmouthed-Brat, Tenten was showing Rose the spare bedroom that was soon to belong to the redhead. "We usually use it for storage," the bun-haired girl explained, "but it won't take long to move the boxes out back to the shed. Then we can put some things in it to make it feel more like home!"

Rose smiled, then noticed a picture sitting on a shrine tucked into a dust-free corner of the room. In it was a smiling woman with her hair in buns, and a Konoha Hitai-ate. A small stick of incense had mostly burned away, revealing its purpose: a memorial for the dead. Rose's smile faltered.

Tenten noticed the direction of her new friend's gaze and felt her mood darken. "I guess we've got that in common too," she said sadly.

Rose nodded solemnly. "Your mom was a kunoichi?"

"Yeah. She was a chunin, a weapons mistress, and her team was specialized in combat and bodyguard missions. Two years ago, they were escorting a nobleman and his entourage, but he hadn't told them he was being targeted by a rival. They were attacked by a squad of Jounins from Kumo. The noble got away safely, but she and one of her teammates died in the fighting. We were lucky no one on her team had a Kekkei Genkai, so the enemy didn't take their bodies. We had her ashes to bury in the family tomb, at least."

Rose nodded. "A part of her is always with you. Just like my mom."

Tenten brightened a bit. "So, let's get these boxes gathered up and put them outside. We can put the shrine in the main room again, and both our moms can watch us from there."

"Sure. I think they'd like that. I bet they'd be best friends."

.oO0Oo.

A few months later, Rose was sitting on her bed, listening to Tenten talk about her classes at the shinobi academy. "So Lee got all upset at Neji for saying that taijutsu is no replacement for a good ninjutsu, and they started fighting right there in class. Neji cleaned his clock, but Lee just shook it off and told him that someday, he'd beat Neji and prove him wrong."

Rose's eyes were wide as she bounced with excitement. "What happened then, Oneechan?" She'd taken to thinking of Tenten as the older sister she'd never had, and the older girl had agreed that they were sisters in the ways that really mattered. "Did Lee do something silly like run ten laps around the school?"

"No," Tenten said with a giggle, "he did fifty! I mean, half the class can't do ninjutsu or genjutsu yet, I don't see why he's so worked up." Then, her eyes narrowed. "So, Rose-chan, are you going to come to the academy too? Otousan says he's got the paperwork done, and the Hokage is holding a spot open for you in case you want to go. There's only a week left before classes start, you know."

Rose frowned. "Our clan took an oath not to be shinobi, only to defend ourselves so long as our village stood. I guess, since it's gone now, I could be a shinobi. But Momma wanted me to live a long life to spite the warlord, not try and get revenge..."

Tenten nodded knowingly. "Your mom's right. But that's not all being a shinobi is about. It's about protecting the village, and helping people. Sure, some of the time you might have to go out and kill, but that's a long way off for us. Heavy combat missions are for Jounins. Even really good shinobi don't usually get there too quickly."

Rose smiled. "I could be a support-nin, and just teach at the academy and help Toushou-san with his work."

Tenten grinned. "Speaking of work, are you going to make that shuriken set I asked you about? No offense to Otousan, but yours are way better. Even Neji asked me where he could get a kunai like mine, after I sliced a hair off Sensei's head during practice today."

"Did you tell him he'd have to pay in blood and ryou to get them?" Rose asked.

"Yep, just like you said. He asked how much, and I told him it would depend. I think he might visit later." Tenten was giggling now. "But seriously, these kunai are amazing. Who'd of thought putting a bit of blood inside would make them so much more accurate?"

Rose nodded. "It's one of the things I found in our clan scrolls. A few drops of the user's blood folded into the metal makes it easier for them to channel chakra through it. That makes it fly straighter, since you can sense just the right time to let it go."

Tenten nodded. "Makes sense." Then she said, "So, are you going to ask Otousan?"

Rose thought about it a bit more, and nodded. "If I decide I don't like it later, I can always drop out and work at a forge, right?"

"Great!" Tenten grabbed Rose's hand, and pulled her up off the bed she was sitting on. Together, they rushed down the stairs to where Toushou was serving a customer.

Rose giggled at the sight. A blonde boy about her age, barely her height and dressed in a horrible orange jacket and pants, was buying kunai, shuriken, and the other academy starter kits that the shop had been selling for the past month or so to new academy students. While Tenten just sighed and shook her head, Rose spent another moment looking over their customer. Walking down, she giggled again, and smiled at the boy. "What kind of ninja wears bright orange?" she asked, trying and failing to keep a straight face.

The boy turned to her and said in a loud voice, "Hey! I like orange!"

Tenten sighed. "Naruto, you know you hate that outfit. Why do you still insist on wearing it?"

Naruto scowled. "'Cause I don't have nothin' else," he muttered.

Rose looked upset at that. "Why not? Won't your parents buy you something else to wear to class?"

Naruto's scowl deepened, as Tenten made warding motions to try and keep Rose quiet. The Uzumaki boy growled, "Don't have parents. And the stupid shopkeepers always kick me out, except Tekkou-ojisan here."

Rose frowned. This little ragamuffin was starting to remind her a bit too much of her own situation, only worse. "Well that's rude of them. How could anyone be so mean to an orphan? Don't you live with someone who takes care of you?"

Naruto looked away. "I can take care of myself, thanks!"

Rose frowned. "Well, do you have any friends? They could get things for you."

Tenten sighed in exasperation. "For some reason, most of the adults in the village don't like him," she explained, as Naruto grimaced. "They don't let their kids play with him, so I'd say we're the only friends he's got. And since I started at the academy last year..."

Naruto smiled slightly. "It's not your fault you can't play with me Tenten-chan. You're busy training, and studying, and stuff. I'll manage."

Rose snorted derisively. "Well, if we're going to be in the academy together," she said, looking Naruto over once more, "you're getting some new clothes. I won't let my first friend in the village get picked on by a bunch of idiots."

Naruto's eyes widened. "You mean it?" he said, quietly. "You'll be my friend?"

Rose shrugged. She'd tried to talk to some of the other girls her age while she was at the park one day, but they had all seemed afraid of her for some reason. 'Probably because I'm a stranger,' she thought. The boys had just laughed and run off when she'd asked to join their game of tag. "Sure. None of the other kids our age seem to like me too much, and it looks to me like you need someone to look after you anyway." She turned to Toushou, who was putting together the rest of Naruto's basic shinobi package. "Toushou-san, get him one of the specials."

Toushou raised an eyebrow, but smiled fondly at his adopted daughter. "I was hoping you might say that." He turned to Naruto. "Naruto, please follow Tenten and Rose to the back."

Naruto, curious, followed the trio to the forge in the back, where Rose ran her hand over the pile of stock bars used for making various shinobi weapons. pulling a few bars off the rack, she set them aside, and pulled out a smaller bar for making shuriken. Then, she turned to Tenten, holding out a palm-sized bowl with a notch on one side. "Oneechan, fill this please." Rose grabbed the smaller shuriken stock first, and put the three kunai bars near the forge to warm up. Heat wasn't needed for a Forgefire to shape the metal, but warm metal was easier to work with. Rose had been practicing for the past month, but doing a full set of kunai and shuriken, especially with blooded steel, was a lot of work for someone her age.

As Rose selected and prepared the metal for the workings, Tenten pulled one of her kunai from a pouch, and turned to Naruto. "Okay, Naruto, Let me cut your palm. I need to get some of your blood."

Naruto recoiled, stammering, "W-what do you need that for!?"

Rose called over her shoulder, "If we put some of your blood into the metal, they'll be more accurate, and stay sharp longer."

Naruto held out his hand reluctantly, but asked, "So who are you anyway? I don't think I've seen you around the village before."

Rose turned to him, holding the small bar of steel in her hands. "I'm sorry, I didn't think of it. My name is Forgefire Rose, the last of my clan. Toushou-san was kind enough to take me in after my mom died getting away from an attack on our village."

Naruto winced, both from the cut Tenten had given him while he was distracted, and the information rose had shared. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto. Sorry about your mom."

Rose sniffled a bit, but smiled. "It's okay, I'm dealing with it. Toushou-san is very nice, and at least I have Tenten-oneechan some of the time. Now, let me show you why my clan is called the Forgefire."

Placing both her hands on the bar of steel, she focused her chakra and called out, "Kinzokuton: Tankou!" She rapidly sectioned the bar into four equal pieces with her bare hands, Naruto staring in awe. "Hey, how're you doing that?" he asked, watching intently.

"It's her Kekkei Genkai," Tenten explained, keeping her voice low so she wouldn't distract her sister. "It lets her work with metal like we'd work with clay. Otousan told me the Forgefire clan used to start training its children as soon as they can walk, so they don't accidentally hurt themselves."

Meanwhile, Rose took each of the lumps of steel, and burrowed her finger into the center of each one, leaving a small hole. Taking the bowl, she carefully dripped a few drops of blood into each of the future shuriken, leaving some in the bowl for the kunai. Sealing the holes closed by pinching the metal, she took one of the lumps and began drawing it out, flattening it into a square about six times the size of a normal shuriken. Then, she began meticulously folding the metal, like a strange form of origami. When it was done, a flat square of the proper size remained, and Rose pinched the center of each side toward the middle, creating the four-pointed star favored by shinobi. She poked a finger through the center of the star, forming a hole to grip the weapon more securely, and used the extra material to reinforce the center. Then, pinching and stroking the edges, she got them razor sharp, and finally held it in both hands once more. "Kinzokuton: Rakusei!" The surface of the tool smoothed and polished itself, leaving a perfect shuriken. Putting it on the table, Rose smiled and wiped away a bit of sweat. Shuriken were easier than kunai, but not by much. "Now, I just have to finish the rest, and we can get you some new clothes."

An hour later, Rose put the last kunai into a bag, grinning. "There. That was good practice!" She handed the kunai and shuriken holsters to Naruto. "These should last a few years unless you get in a real fight, but let me know if you need one fixed."

Naruto nodded happily. "Thanks, Rose-chan!"

Rose grinned, and pulled a tape measure off the wall. "Now, let's get some measurements so I can pick up something that fits."

Naruto submitted meekly to this treatment, until Rose hung up the tape and told him, "Now don't go anywhere. I'll be back in a flash."

As she skipped out the door, a grin on her face, Naruto turned to Tenten. "She's scary, Tenten-chan."

The girl just nodded. "She's trying to help you because it'll make her feel better about her Okaasan, I guess. I've only known her a little while, since we took her in after her Okaasan died, but we're already like sisters. She's... driven, I guess. Bound and determined to make sure her life has meaning, and the best way she knows is to help people."

Naruto scratched his head in confusion, but shrugged. "At least I'll have a friend at the academy. Maybe it won't be so boring that way."

Tenten winced, and looked down at the little boy who'd often come pester her, or hide out in the shop after a mob of drunken old men tried to attack him. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. But when Okaasan died, I had to help Otousan take care of the shop, and then there was the cademy..."

Naruto just grinned his usual happy grin. "Don't worry about it Tenten-chan! I understand, really!" Looking at him though, Tenten could see that his smile didn't reach his eyes. She sighed, and ruffled his hair.

"You don't need to try and make me feel better about it, Naruto-kun. And you're a terrible liar."

Naruto pouted. "Hey! I'm good enough to fool the old man!"

Tenten just sighed and shook her head. "Come on, why don't you try out your new shuriken? There's a stump out back you can use."

That cheered up the blonde quite a bit. "Yeah! I'll show you how awesome I am!"

.oO0Oo.

Rose returned to the shop, a large bundle in her hands, only to find it empty. Going back toward the forge, she saw Toushou sorting a pile of scrap metal, mostly broken or cracked shinobi tools. "Where's Naruto-kun?" she asked him, looking around for a flash of orange.

Toushou chuckled, and pointed out the back door. "Tenten is trying to fix his throwing technique."

Nodding her thanks, Rose walked quietly out the back door, to find Naruto glaring at Tenten's practice stump like it had killed his favorite puppy. The orange-clad blonde gripped his kunai, and made to throw. Tenten grabbed his arm, and adjusted his grip on the dagger. "I keep telling you, you need to hold it more firmly, and closer to the ring!"

Naruto whined, "I'm trying to! But my hands want to hold it higher up!"

Rose shook her head. "That's why it's called 'training' Naruto-kun. So you can teach your hands to do it the right way, and they'll just do it instinctively."

Tenten nodded, and let go of Naruto. "The more you practice just holding the kunai properly, the faster your aim will improve."

Naruto threw the kunai, planting the razor-sharp point deep into the center of the stump. "Yatta!" Jumping up and down ecstatically, he turned to Tenten and Rose, a huge grin on his face. "Did ya see that!? That was perfect!"

Tenten smiled, and shook her head. "Close enough anyway, for kunai. Now, let's see what Rose got for you, hmm?"

Rose set down the bag, and pulled out a wad of dark blue, gray and green. "The ninjas back in Kengakure always wore camouflage prints, but they don't have that here. So, I got some of each color and you can match them to what's around. Or..."

Naruto asked, curiously, "Or?"

"Or, I can take these clothes I bought two sizes too large," she said with a grin, "cut them up, mix the colors, and put them back together as a camouflage suit. It'd make it harder for someone to aim at your vitals, because your outline is fuzzy."

"You'd do that for me?" Naruto asked, somewhat astonished.

"Unless you'd like to do it yourself," Rose replied. "I even got a hat to hide your hair."

Tenten nodded. "Nobody in the village would recognize you in this getup," she said. "As long as you didn't say so, they'd never figure it out. Could come in handy for shopping and stuff."

Naruto looked longingly at the fabric, and said slowly, "But... I don't wanna hide... just..." He shook his head. "If they're gonna be mean, who cares about them?"

Rose gathered up the clothes, while Tenten put a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "That's the spirit! Think of it as a really good prank! And this time, you won't even get in trouble for it! Just don't wear it to class, or they'll figure it out."

Naruto grinned, his eyes narrowed in malevolent glee. "Stupid shopkeepers won't know what hit 'em!" he declared, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. He followed Rose into the house, where the redhead immediately set to work.

.oO0Oo.

A week later, a redhead and a blonde stood outside the doors of the Konohagakure no Sato Ninja Academy. Both were armed to the teeth, sporting kunai and shuriken pouches on each thigh, wires coiled in pouches on their wrists, and retractable metal spikes on their sandals. Rose was particularly proud of the last one. The soles of their sandals were double thick, with the bottom layer removable by slipping a small catch on the instep that would let it fall away, revealing screw-in spikes. For sparring, like they would do in the academy, rounded studs replaced the spikes, at least on Naruto's sandals. Rose simply used her Kekkei Genkai to switch hers one way or the other. In a show of solidarity, she had managed to find an identical orange jumpsuit, and had her long red hair separated into thin strands that ended in small metal beads she'd wrapped around the tips. Where Naruto's outfit had the Uzumaki clan spiral on the shoulder, Rose wore the fire sword of her clan etched into pure silver, made from some of her mother's jewelry. The only other difference in the friends' dress was the sword Rose wore at her hip: a katana sized to fit her small frame, carbon-steel edge dulled to be non-lethal, in a brass scabbard attached to a belt of similar brass chain.

Naruto whistled his approval at the weapon. "Looks nice, Rose-chan!"

Rose shrugged, blushing slightly. "It's traditional for my clan to carry a sword once they begin shinobi training. Even after we took our vow to stop being shinobi, every Forgefire still carried a sword to break up fights. It's also a really handy source of good metal in case you need something, like a rope or handcuffs, or more shuriken."

Naruto nodded, impressed. "That's pretty cool! So, you ready?"

Rose nodded, and swallowed the sudden nervous lump in her throat. "Yeah. Let's go."

And with that, two orange-clad students entered the academy. Life in Konoha would never be the same.

.oO0Oo.  
End of Chapter 1 .oO0Oo.

Author's Notes:

Well, here we go again.

This getting finished means it will likely be the second thing ever posted to my FFnet account, despite it being the 20-something-th piece I've worked on, and the seventh I've completed a full chapter for. I just get so many ideas, and the plot-bunnies won't leave me alone until I work on them. With luck, though, I can keep working on this one long enough to get a good chunk of story done.

Some things to point out: Rose is very mature for her age. Part of this is due to her being the last member of her clan, and watching her entire village die a lingering death from poison. However, the greater part of it is the fact that she has been sternly disciplined in the use of her chakra as part of her Kekkei Genkai for at least six years, and that she has already learned how to use her art to created deadly weapons of war. The Forgefire clan aren't pacifists, exactly, they just don't go looking for trouble. But when it finds them, they are prepared for it.

As explained in the fic, not controlling their ability could lead to serious injuries due to accidents, and unlike, say, the Byakugan, handling metal isn't something that can be avoided until the child is more mature. A lot of the early teaching is done in the form of games and songs to make it fun, but eight-year-old Rose has chakra control as good as Sakura does after graduation, nearly three years later. This is a survival trait, not an attempt to overpower the character.

As far as Rose and Naruto hitting it off so early, do not take this as a sign of a future romantic pairing. I have someone picked out for Rose, but it isn't Naruto, nor is it Sasuke (who's too busy angsting by graduation to date anyway). All other relationships are up in the air. Some will be based on manga canon, others not. Also, for those who might complain: Rose's mother just died, most of the local kids don't want to play with her, and her only real friends are her foster father and her new oneechan. Of course she'll latch on hard to the first person who accepts her. All humans do that.

If you didn't understand a japanese word, you shouldn't be reading anime fanfics. I only use the most common words, and if you haven't figured them out yet then get a dictionary, or watch more subtitled stuff.

Anyway, updates will likely be sporadic, but positive reviews are likely to speed things up (I'm a glutton for praise, sue me.) Flames will be dismissed out of hand, and constructive criticism will be perused and considered, so long as it is technical in nature (grammar, pacing, suggestions for better imagery etc) and not related to the plot. It's my gorram story and I'll do what I please with the people in it! You don't like it, write your own.

That about wraps it up for this chapter. Stay tuned for chapter two: Pump the Bellows.


	2. Pump the Bellows

General Disclaimer: you know what goes here, I know what goes here, we all know what goes here. Attempting to sue me will get you laughed at (I am paying off my college loans and have no spare money), flaming me will get you ignored, and praise will get a polite thank you. I write because I enjoy the act of writing down my ideas, and if you happen to feel one way or the other about what I've written it doesn't matter to me.

Author's Forward: this chapter has a lot of time skips, though I don't list specific dates. I decided not to cover the academy years in detail, and instead do a few scenes to highlight interesting points (Uchiha massacre, training milestones, etc.) That way I can get to graduation quicker, and start working on the meat of the story (aka, the parts I already have plotted out).

Last Episode on Forgefire Chronicles:  
Rose's clan has been obliterated, her village destroyed, and her mother killed. But, with the love and encouragement of her adoptive father Tekkou Toushou and his daughter Tenten, she's settled in at Konohagakure no Sato. More than that, she's befriended Uzumaki Naruto, village pariah and unknowing holder of the Kyuubi no Kistune. The two are about to start their first day of classes at the academy, but what is lurking just inside the doors of their home away from home for the next three years?

.oO0Oo.

Fizzy Pop, Inc. Presents:  
Yet another crazy idea by Natimus Prime!

Naruto: Forgefire Chronicles

Chapter 02: Pump the Bellows

.oO0Oo.

The redhead in the orange shirt and pants groaned. "This is silly! Why couldn't the old man put us in the same class, at least?"

The blonde next to her just shrugged. "Don't matter to me. And hey! This way, both classes will have a loud, obnoxious, orange-suited kid in 'em! It'll be great! And we'll still see each other at lunch and stuff, right Rose-chan?"

Forgefire Rose, recent immigrant to Konoha and last member of her clan, shook her head and sighed, setting the brass beads in her long tresses tinkling against each other. "We aren't supposed to cause trouble, remember? Tenten-oneechan heard some of the teachers talking about how unhappy they are with you even being here. Don't make it worse for yourself by being a brat, Naruto-kun."

Uzumaki Naruto nodded, adding, "But we aren't supposed to show off, either. Being top in the academy's not important, right?"

"Right. If people still think you're a dumb idiot, it'll be easier to avoid their notice." Rose waved an admonishing finger at her friend. "And if they don't notice you, they won't get mad at you, so they won't be mean to you. No more pranks, no more rude comments, no loud declarations that you're going to be Hokage whenever someone looks down on you. If you wanna be Hokage, you need to work at it, not just talk big."

Naruto nodded sullenly. He'd had a few days to get used to Rose's idea since she'd told him about it while she sewed up his new disguise clothes. It made a lot of sense, but that didn't mean he'd like it. "Yeah, yeah, I got ya. Now, can we get moving? We'll be late to class!"

Rose nodded to him, and handed over a large bento box. "Here's your lunch. Meet by this tree here?"

"Sure. See you in a few."

.o0O0o.

"Kami, that man just talks forever!" Rose complained as she and Naruto walked home from the academy after yet another day of severely boring history lectures. "Kuwabara-sensei has to have the biggest mouth in Konoha!"

Naruto frowned. "Hey! You know darn well that I have the biggest mouth in Konoha!"

Rose shook her head. "No, you've got nothing on Kuwabara-sensei. You're louder, but you shut up eventually. He just drones on and on and on and on forever in that ungodly monotone of his. I fell asleep at least twice. The worst part is, I doubt he noticed."

Naruto shrugged. "At least he doesn't glare at you every time he catches your eye. Man, what I'd like to do to that jerk Kiraka-sensei!"

Rose just sighed. "Taijutsu practice until dinner? We still haven't been taught any ninjutsu or genjutsu yet."

Naruto nodded. "Sure! And maybe I can ask the old man if we can borrow some scrolls next time I see him."

.oO0Oo.

"Hey Rose! Check out what I got!" Naruto waved a tightly rolled scroll over his head as they met up in the school yard before classes.

Rose grinned. "It only took you, what, two weeks to get this off the Hokage?" she said, crossing her arms.

Naruto yelled back, "Hey, the Hokage's a busy guy, you know? It's not like I can just walk into his office whenever I want!"

Rose held out her hand. "So what did you get?" When her orange-clad partner in crime plopped the scroll down in her hands, she opened it up and read, "Henge no Jutsu. It's a technique to disguise yourself as someone or something else." She looked up at Naruto. "Could be handy."

Naruto frowned. "I guess. The old man wouldn't give me anything really cool or dangerous though, he said I might hurt myself. I was hoping for a really cool fire technique."

Rose swatted him lightly on the head with the scroll. "This is one of the academy jutsus, baka. Oneechan was talking about it earlier. After you can do this, you can go ahead and work on harder stuff. I'll hold on to this, and we'll start working on it tonight."

.oO0Oo.

Naruto blinked at Rose as the pair stood facing each other in the forge area of the Tekkou shop. Rose blinked back. They stared at each other for a few moments, then 'Rose' laughed. "Not bad, but you're not grinning enough! Come on, I'm supposed to be a happy-go-lucky clown, remember?"

'Naruto' shook his head, and there was a poof of smoke. A second Rose stood there, arms crossed with a glare on her face. Smacking her double on the head revealed it to be Naruto. "And I'M not that busty, you brat. Now come on, we've been working on this forever and you need to get this Henge no Jutsu right by next week so we can go to the festival. Unless you like getting beaten up by villagers every year?"

Naruto frowned at the reminder of his outcast status, but shrugged it off quickly. "Okay, this time let's do our teachers!"

.oO0Oo.

"This is the first time I've ever gotten to enjoy one of these festivals," said the brunette walking beside Rose. Both girls held sticks of cotton candy, and were dressed in nearly identical yukata: light orange with splashes of red flames. Rose's obi was a shiny gray material that was in reality made of scrap metal shavings from the forge. She couldn't tie her sash to save her life, so the bow had been sculpted to the proper shape and then left there, while she wrapped the remainder around her waist and sealed it with a forging jutsu. The other girl wore a blue obi with a pattern of yellow foxes chasing each other around the edges.

"See? Aren't you glad we got this jutsu perfect, Ruto-chan?" Rose teased. "Most of the idiots who hate you aren't good enough to see through a Henge."

Naruto just shrugged 'her' shoulders, and took another bite of 'her' cotton candy. "Hey, they've got a fishing game over there! I've always wanted to try that!"

Laughing as she followed the eager shinobi-in-training, Rose said, "Like you can take care of a goldfish anyway!"

.oO0Oo.

"Man, a whole year of classes, and they didn't teach us a single jutsu!" Naruto griped as the 'Orange Duo' sat side by side on their swing in the academy playground.

Rose elbowed her partner in crime in the ribs. "At least you don't have to learn flower arranging and stupid disguise stuff. I'm a Forgefire for crying out loud! Half of our clan's combat jutsu are for heavy demolitions, and the other half aren't exactly stealthy! I'd be wasting my time as a traditional kunoichi, but Misaki-sensei doesn't seem to care. She just tells me that I need to know this junk, and that I'm a failure as a woman if I can't write a good haiku."

The pair both sighed heavily. Then, glancing at the boy beside her, Rose said, "You know, maybe we should go ask the Hokage for a new jutsu scroll. We've both got the Henge no Jutsu pretty much perfected."

Naruto nodded. "You sure I can't learn any of the techniques in your clan scrolls?" His voice was resigned, but with a tiny spark of pleading in it.

Rose shook her head. "Remember when you tried to do the basic forging jutsu, Tankou no Jutsu? You almost broke your fingers trying to twist the metal. And that's the first one I ever learned."

Naruto sighed again, and said, "Off to Oji-san then?"

.oO0Oo.

Naruto grinned as he and Rose watched Tenten flow through her taijutsu workout, wherein she hurled large amounts of pointy things at dots the size of a fingertip painted all over the trees in their backyard. Of course, she did so while jumping, ducking, dodging, and rolling around imaginary opponents. Occasionally she blocked an anticipated hit when she couldn't avoid it, and rarely she lashed out with kunai still in hand, but mostly it was aerial target practice.

When she was finished, Naruto was impressed. Still, he couldn't help but add, "What do you do if someone's got a shield or somethin' to block your stuff?"

Tenten just grinned. "Now's the perfect time for a short lesson on explosive tags." She held up a small piece of paper with a seal drawn on it. "This one's not very powerful, so it could be used during training. I've got a pouch full of kunai, and each one has a tag wrapped around the handle, to make it harder to see. So if someone blocks or catches the kunai, they get blown up!"

Rose raised an eyebrow. "And what if they spot the tag?"

"Not all of the tags are real. Explosive tags are really expensive, but you can make a simple copy of one and still fool most people. They start dodging a lot of perfectly ordinary kunai and shuriken, and while they're on the defensive you can strike. The real ones are in a smaller pocket inside the main pouch."

Rose nodded. "With a lot more practice, I might be able to put the seal directly into the metal, so you wouldn't even know the difference until it was too late. It's tricky though. If you mess it up you've got a lot of metal exploding in your hands."

Naruto nodded sagely. "Better save that for another day, then."

Rose just elbowed him in the side, rolling her eyes. "All right, let's take a look at that scroll you got off the old man."

Naruto reached into a pocket, and retrieved a tightly rolled scroll in a leather case. Opening it up, he read the first line aloud. "The Bunshin no Jutsu is a basic skill which allows the user to confuse an opponent by giving them more targets..."

.oO0Oo.

Rose stood in the clearing behind her home, eyes darting back and forth quickly as she assumed a combat stance. Surrounding her were six Naruto clones, each one grinning maniacally. Her right hand flicked down to draw her katana, and in a flash, there were six puffs of smoke as the illusions vanished. Sheathing her blade, she turned to a tree in the forest, and said, "Okay, I know you're there, Naruto."

There was a shimmer, and the blonde boy fell out of the tree, landing lightly on his feet. "How'd you find me?" he asked.

"Your kunai," Rose replied, smugly. "My Kekkei Genkai is still developing, remember? One of the things I've learned is how to sense the location of metal. Henge is just an illusion, like a Bunshin. The metal is still there, and I can still sense it, even if I can't see it. Plus, your Bunshin suck. None of them looked the same, and only one looked like you."

Naruto nodded. "So you would've known I'd jumped up the tree once I did the Bunshin, even if they were perfect? That's pretty handy! Man, I wish I had some kind of cool bloodline!"

Rose smiled. "You do, sort of. You heal so fast! I'm pretty sure you broke your leg last week, but you didn't even notice, you just got back up a minute later. It's incredible!"

Naruto shrugged. "Maybe, but if someone snuck up on me and broke my neck, I'd still be dead. You'd see 'em coming!"

"True, true. But if you can't use advanced senses, work on your regular ones. You've got a good sense of smell, and great hearing, so use that instead. Even shinobi make noise when they breathe."

.oO0Oo.

"You know what, Rose? Hokage-jiji is kinda a jerk."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Not this again. You know he was just making sure you didn't get hurt trying a jutsu before knowing how to control yourself. Remember your first Henge? You put way too much energy into it! Imagine what would've happened if you'd done that with a fire jutsu? You'd have blown up half the town!"

"Yeah, but still! Giving us the third year academy jutsus?! That's just lame!" Naruto was really getting angry, waving his hands around and yelling. "I mean, he could have at least SAID that's what he was doing! And we learned Kawarimi no Jutsu after two days of classes!"

"You wanna ask him for another scroll then? Maybe this time we'll actually learn something fun."

Naruto grinned. "No need." He held up a scroll in a bamboo case. "I 'borrowed' this from Sasuke-teme during lunch, made a copy, and put it back before we left for the day. Never suspected a thing, the idiot."

Rose grinned. "Now we'll put that ridiculous stamina of yours to good use."

.oO0Oo.

Rose stared at the blackened tree, embers still smoldering in places. Turning to Naruto, she gave him a solid whack upside the head. "What did I tell you about putting too much chakra into the technique, baka?!"

A slightly singed Naruto just shrugged. "Not to do it?"

Rose sighed in frustration. "If I tried to match that, I'd pass out. How do you keep doing it? That's the fifth time you've overdone it in an hour, and you don't even look winded. I can barely do two regular ones in an hour, and I've had chakra training since I could walk."

Naruto shrugged again. "I dunno. When I'm doing it, it's like trying to plug the end of a hose."

Rose nodded. "Maybe it's why you heal so fast, you've just got so much chakra you have trouble controlling it. Now, try it again, and use... five times as much as you use for a Henge."

Naruto nodded, performed the seals, and said, "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" The fireball was still impressive, but of a much more normal size that his previous attempts. As he smiled, Rose gave him a pat on the back.

"There we go! I guess your problem is just a matter of knowing how much to put into the technique, not in the shaping. Makes sense, if you can't feel the drain to tell you when you've put in enough."

Naruto nodded. Then, he exclaimed, "Hey! I've got an idea! How about, any jutsu one of us learns, we teach the other? That way, you learn all the stuff I know, and I keep my Jutsus from blowing up in my face all the time!"

Rose giggled. "Sure, why not? Somebody has to keep you in line!"

"Hey!"

.oO0Oo.

"You hear about what happened?"

Rose nodded. "The whole village knows, Naruto. Man, that's gotta suck for Uchiha-san. His older brother basically told him to his face that he wasn't important enough to care about."

Naruto shrugged. "He wasn't in class at all, probably up in the Tower with the old man. Think we should stop by?"

"No," Rose replied, "we should give him some time to mourn in private. I know I felt better after I got my mom's death out of my system."

"Still, there's gotta be somethin' we can do. I mean, he's a total jerk, but he doesn't deserve this."

"You can bet his little fan-girls will be bugging him all the time once he comes back to class. Why not shut them up?" Rose grinned evilly. "I think its time we revived your pranks, Naruto."

The blonde grinned hugely. "Oh goody! I've got a list of things I've thought up since we started at the academy, but I knew you'd get pissed if I did them." He rubbed his hands together, his grin turning from pleased to devious. "Let's start with Ino and Sakura, they're the loudest and most annoying. Besides, as much fun as it would be to just prank them, I've got a better idea."

Rose nodded. "All right. So what's the plan?"

Naruto just grinned. "First, we'll need to talk to Sasuke..."

.oO0Oo.

Two days after the announcement that the Uchiha clan had been nearly wiped out, Sasuke walked into class, eyes downcast and cold, hands in his pockets, and a black band wrapped around his sleeve to signify he was in mourning. The class stared at the last Uchiha, who appeared no different than usual. Naruto was already in his seat, and looked up to the blue-clad student. Quietly, as the other walked past, Naruto muttered something unintelligible. Sasuke made a slight nod of acknowledgement, and sat down not in his usual seat, but moved to the end of his usual row, near a window overlooking the section of the village containing the Uchiha compound. The rest of the class was, if not quiet, at least subdued, out of respect for his feelings.

That changed as a pink and blonde duo came through the door, both shouting, "Sasuke-kun!" and leaping for his desk. Sasuke didn't even acknowledge them, just kept looking out the window. When a fight broke out over who would get to sit with him, he turned, and fixed them both with a freezing glare. The girls stopped their argument, shocked at the expression on his face. While they were quiet, he stood up, and pointed to the band on his arm. Then, he sat down again, looking out the window. Naruto called down from his place at the upper row, "Show some respect for the dead and the mourning. Uchiha-san is now the head of his clan. When he is ready for a wife to rebuild his clan, he will choose her based on her strength as a shinobi, not her looks or her ability to memorize stupid lectures. For now, shut up and let him have his peace." Turning slightly, he said, "Aburame, why don't you sit next to him for a while? I'm sure he could use a quiet person to share his desk with."

Shino nodded behind his thick coat, and walked across the room to place himself beside Sasuke. Naruto vacated his seat as well, and put himself in the remaining seat in that section. The rows behind and in front of Sasuke were already occupied by others. Sakura gathered herself first, and asked angrily, "And where are we supposed to sit, Naruto?!"

Naruto glared at her, and got to his feet. He was the same height as her, but Rose had shown him how to project serious killer intent, and used it to make the two girls, as well as the rest of the class, shiver. Slowly, enunciating carefully so there would be no misunderstandings, he said in a low voice, "You will keep your voice down, Haruno, and you will sit in Aburame's seat. Yamanaka will sit in my seat. And if you bother Uchiha-san again before he removes his band, I will punish you with the worst prank I have ever conceived. If your humiliation does not force you to flee the village, I will continue to think up worse torments until you do. And if that doesn't frighten you enough, know this: Sandaime himself fears this prank, and is still unable to beat it. What chance do you have against it?" Sitting down again, he saw that the two girls were sufficiently cowed, and said, "Now move, before I decide to prank you anyway."

Class continued quietly for the whole day, until Naruto, Sasuke, and Rose met on the roof of the academy. With a slight noise, two clouds of smoke erupted around Rose and Sasuke, revealing that both of them had been under Henge of each other. The real Sasuke smiled slightly at Rose, and nodded. "Thanks, both of you. I never realized just how annoying those two were before I spent a day without them in my class. How did it go?"

Rose laughed. "You should have seen their faces when I glared at them! It was like I'd just killed their favorite kitten!" Turning to her blonde friend, she added, "That was a great plan, Naruto!"

Naruto shrugged. "I'm just glad you wrote the script, Rose-chan! I think they were more impressed I knew all those big words than scared of my threat."

"By the way, what prank were you talking about when you scared them off?" Sasuke had already heard the planned speech when the pair had come to him about giving him some quiet for a day or two, but wondered what prank Naruto was talking about.

"Well, Jiji is a pervert. So I Henged into a tall, busy blonde with no clothes on, and every time, he falls over with this huge nosebleed! I think he might have fainted the first time. Not my fault girls're prob'ly immune to it." All three of them laughed, as the sun began to set behind the Hokage monument.

.oO0Oo.

Rose and Naruto sat atop the Fourth Hokage's stone head, staring off into the distance over Konoha. "So," Rose asked, "what did you think of our second year?"

"I'm not sure I like hiding what I can do," was the reply from her blond friend. "I mean, it make sense that we shouldn't show all our tricks in case we have to fight them some day, but it still sucks."

Rose nodded. "I found a new bloodline jutsu in the scrolls today. I don't think I'm going to learn this one, though."

Naruto turned to her, eyes wide. "Why wouldn't you want to learn more of your family style?"

Rose closed her eyes and sighed. "You remember our lectures on anatomy? There's iron in blood, to help carry oxygen to your muscles. The jutsu..." She trailed off for a moment, then turned and opened her eyes, green orbs staring straight into her friend's blue. "The jutsu uses our ability to see and shape metal, and rips it all out, all at once. If you don't die from having tiny particles turn you into a sieve, you suffocate in a minute or two because there's nothing left to carry oxygen to your brain. It's an assassin's technique, nothing more." She turned away, looking at the ground. "There's no counter. It's about thirty hand-seals, but after that there's no stopping it. I... I don't want to be able to do that. I want my opponent to have a fair shot."

Naruto nodded. "That's what I like about you, Rose-chan! You've got your priorities right!" Rose quirked an eyebrow in question, and he continued. "Sometimes you don't have to kill the other person, and sometimes you do. But something like that wouldn't give you time to figure it out. If you're fighting, you've got time to convince the other person to surrender, and then no one has to die. People aren't like kunai, they have feelings, friends, family! Other shinobi might not realize it, but we do, because we lost ours already, and we know how important our precious people are!"

Rose smiled. "You're right, Naruto. That's a great nin-do, taking care of your precious people first, and the mission second."

"You think?"

"I do. Now come on, last one to Ichiraku's has to buy! Ready? GO!"

"Hey! That's cheating! I wasn't ready yet!"

.oO0Oo.

"Man, Sasuke-teme's a jerk!"

Rose sighed the sigh of the long suffering. "What now?"

"It's like he's completely forgotten what we did for him!" Naruto ranted. "He's so high and mighty about how he's an Uchiha, and he has to hold himself to higher standards, blah blah blah! I'm just as good as he is, I just don't need to tell everyone about it all the time!" His hands were waving in the air as he twitched in agitation.

Rose pinched the bridge of her nose, looking down and squinting. "So what you're saying is, you're pissed off that he's bragging and Sakura-chan's buying into it?"

Naruto froze, and let his arms drop. "Yeah. She won't even look at me, except to tell me to bug off and leave Sasuke alone. It sucks!"

"So," Rose continued, "It's not really that you don't like Sasuke, its that you're jealous that Sakura pays more attention to him." Naruto merely nodded, so she continued. "Maybe if you stopped showing interest in Sasuke at all, just ignore him unless he's actually talking to you..."

"That could work, I guess." Naruto sounded skeptical, but he knew Rose was way smarter than him, so he didn't argue.

"And try asking her out to somewhere other than Ramen. I know you like it, but you should eat more healthy foods. You're going to stay short forever if you don't start eating a balanced diet."

Naruto looked horrified. "I don't WANNA be short forever!"

"Then eat your vegetables."

.oO0Oo.

"Final exams are tomorrow." Rose was seated on a bench in her adoptive father's forge, massaging a piece of scrap iron to remove the rust and impurities.

"Hard to believe we've already been in the academy three years," Naruto replied, idly twirling one of the blood-bonded kunai Rose had made for his birthday. His old set, from when they joined the academy, had finally worn down to the point they had to be completely reforged.

Rose put down her newly cleaned metal, a pile of gunk now held in a fold of her forge apron. "Naruto, I've been doing some research on how they set up the teams."

"Oh?"

"For shinobi who don't have a particular specialty, they put the best and the worst in the class together on a team, so the worse person has a chance to learn from the better one, and to balance out the teams." At Naruto's encouraging nod, she said, "I want you to fail the final exam."

"WHAT?!" Naruto's shout managed to shake the rafters, and sent some of the forest birds scrambling.

"Calm down!" Rose hissed, holding up her hands in a warding gesture. "You've already got the lowest grades in the class. That mean's you'll probably be paired up with Sasuke, since he's got the best. But your third member is going to be either Haruno, or someone from my class. If you do badly enough, you'll get Haruno to help you with your book smarts and catch you up to Uchiha, but if you fail and get some sort of second chance, you might get someone better. Since we know you have control issues, and the teachers know as well, just say you can't do whatever ninjutsu they ask for, or screw it up. Then, ask if you can do a different technique, and you'll get a pass, and a better team."

"That's... That's really sneaky, Rose-chan." Naruto grinned. "Mizuki's been acting fishy for a while too. All the sudden he's trying to be nice to me, even though I can tell he doesn't mean it. This might be a chance to find out what he's up to. He really wants me to like him, maybe he wants me to do something for him and take the blame for it."

"That's my boy! Always look underneath the underneath!"

.oO0Oo.

Konoha Academy was a hive of activity on any day, but with a class graduating that afternoon, there was much more going on than usual. In her own classroom, Forgefire Rose put down her pencil, having completed the written exam to her satisfaction. It wasn't perfect, but she wanted to place decently in the rankings today, to get a place on a good team. In the next classroom over, Naruto had also completed his written exam. Studying was just not his thing, he mused, as he checked to make sure he would at least pass. Satisfied that enough of his answers were right, he turned the paper in to the proctor, and began contemplating Rose's latest plan while he sat at his desk. If it worked, he would be put on a team that would eventually specialize in heavy combat, given Sasuke's natural ability and Naruto's hidden skill. If Sakura joined, she'd be useful as bait, or maybe a healer if she got into medical jutsu. She certainly had the control for it, Naruto thought with a grin. But if he did badly enough, they might put Rose on his team, with her obvious skill in improvised defenses. She could protect the injured, or safeguard their employer, while the heavy hitters took out the enemy. Not that her offense was lacking, either!

Just then, he heard his name called to go attend the ninjutsu portion of the test. Standing up, he made his way into the separate room where Iruka and Mizuki were waiting for him. Iruka nodded, and said, "Naruto, for this portion of the exam you need to perform Bunshin no Jutsu."

Inwardly, Naruto was pleased. It was one of his worst jutsu, and that would make his job easier. "Iruka-sensei, that's my worst jutsu! And I'm feeling kinda sick, probably some bad milk. Couldn't I do something else? I'm really good at Henge no Jutsu, couldn't I do that?"

Iruka shook his head, saying, "The test is set by the council, we can't change it." Mizuki added, "Just do your best, Naruto. This is about effort, not perfection."

Naruto assumed the proper hand-seal, and yelled, "Bunshin no Jutsu!" while purposely twisting his chakra so the technique wouldn't work right. He was rewarded with a single clone, looking very pale and sickly. It flopped uselessly to the floor, holding its stomach. Naruto felt himself blushing in shame.

Iruka shook his head sadly. "You fail, Naruto."

"WHAT? I told you this wasn't my best jutsu! Let me try something else!" Naruto knew his role, and did his best to play it. Just think of it as a prank, he thought to himself.

Mizuki pointed at the clone on the floor. "He did technically complete the justu, Iruka. And he did say he was ill."

"The others all made at least three perfect clones, and that one is too malformed to be of any use. I can't pass him." Iruka looked a bit sad as he said, "I'm sorry, Naruto, but you will not graduate this year."

Naruto was the picture of dejection, but he saw a small smile on Mizuki's face. Knowing that something was up, he maintained his facade until he left the room. A minute later, Mizuki cornered him in a stairwell. "Naruto, I have a way you can make up the exam. There's a scroll in the Hokage's tower, with a black seal on it. If you can bring that to me tonight at Training Ground 22, around ten--no, eleven--and show me one of the jutsu inside, I'll make sure you pass." Naruto nodded excitedly, and took off.

Running out of the building, Naruto spotted Rose on the swing, holding a hitai-ate in her hands. Rose stood, and walked over to him. "How'd it go?"

"Iruka failed me on the ninjutsu. But you were right! Mizuki wants me to swipe a scroll from the Hokage's tower, and bring it to him tonight." Naruto grinned. "He wants to meet me at eleven. Can you show up then as backup?"

"Can do. How much should I bring?"

"Oh, bring it all if you can. Mizuki's still a chuunin, so he'll be tough to beat without working for it."

"You got it, Naruto." Rose waved. "See you tonight. Get home and eat up, you'll need the energy."

Rose watched as Naruto shuffled off, still maintaining his attitude of depression, then turned and headed home herself. She'd specifically asked Toushou to stay home and keep the forge hot. Still holding her hitai-ate, Rose grinned as she contemplated what she was about to do to it. Some of the Shinobi would probably get pissed if they figured it out, but she was a Forgefire, and Forgefires had their own rules.

"I just hope it doesn't blow up like the last one did," she muttered.

.oO0Oo.

That night, as the Konohagakure ANBU corps scrambled to find Naruto, Rose stepped into his clearing at precisely 10:59, still hidden from view but nearby. Naruto was covered in bruises and scrapes, and breathing hard, but he had a smile on his face. Iruka stepped out of the trees a few minutes later, and spotted Naruto, who sat up and put one hand on the scroll. "You're too early, sensei. I only learned one of the techniques in the scroll."

Iruka goggled at that, but recovered quickly, saying, "Naruto, that scroll is very dangerous! We need to put it back, quickly!"

A laugh echoed out of the trees, as Mizuki appeared, standing on a branch above Iruka. "Foolish Iruka, you think I would let my prize escape now? Come on, brat, give me the scroll and I'll grant you a quick death before I sell the scroll to the Raikage."

Naruto hugged the scroll tightly, shouting back, "No way! You said if I learned one of these you'd let me be a shinobi!"

Iruka scowled at Mizuki, but maintained his focus on Naruto. "Here, give me the scroll, Naruto!"

Behind the two older shinobi, Rose stepped into view, holding up a silencing finger and making hand signs to Naruto using the shinobi code. Picking up a log, she mad another sign, and nodded. Naruto didn't outwardly acknowledge, but he did pat the top of the scroll once. "There's no way you'll ever get this scroll from me, Mizuki-sensei!"

Mizuki hefted a massive shuriken, and said, "Your loss," before hurling it at Naruto. Not expecting it, Naruto froze up, and Iruka jumped in front, taking the blow on his back.

"Don't you ever wonder why no one likes you?" Mizuki asked in a hateful voice. "Why everyone calls you a demon?" Naruto stared, wide-eyed, at the blood dripping down Iruka's leg. He couldn't respond, couldn't think. Mizuki continued his speech. "There's a reason no one celebrates your birthday, you know."

"Stop! It's against the Hokage's law!" Iruka yelled, as he pulled the shuriken from his back with a sucking noise.

"It's because YOU are the Kyuubi no Kitsune!" Mizuki yelled. "You're the demon who killed Iruka's parents! He doesn't care about you, he just wants the scroll!" That drove Iruka over the edge, and he whipped the shuriken at Mizuki, who deflected it easily.

"That's a lie," Iruka said, voice tight with pain. "I do worry about you Naruto. That's why I didn't pass you, because I didn't want you to get hurt on a mission when you weren't ready. We're alike, you and I. No parents, few friends, heck, I was the class clown too." Iruka paused, then wheezed, "The demon may be inside you, but he isn't YOU." Tears in his eyes, Naruto nodded.

"I won't let him get the scroll from me, sensei." and with that, Naruto leapt off into the trees, chakra pulsing steadily.

Below, Rose performed a quick Henge on the log, turning it into a copy of the scroll. Tossing it up as Naruto went over her head, she caught the real scroll as it dropped, and buried it along with one of her blood-bonded kunai under a tree in a hole she had dug while Iruka and Mizuki were talking. Covering it quickly, she scampered off after Naruto and Iruka, staying on the ground to help mask her presence.

She caught up to them in a clearing, where Naruto was confronting Mizuki. Iruka looked to be down for the count, too wounded to fight back. But Naruto was giving Mizuki his patented 'I'm-gonna-kick-your-ass' smirk, and he said, "Time to show you the technique I learned, Sensei. Nobody hurts my precious people!" Making a Ram seal, he yelled, "KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" There was a huge cloud of smoke, a cacophony of noise, and there were hundreds of Naruto clones surrounding Mizuki, in the trees, on the ground, everywhere!

"Come on!" "Take me!" "Show me what you're made of!" Taunts echoed around the clearing. Rose grinned, once the awe of her friend's new technique had worn off, and pulled a small scroll with weighted ends from her hip pouch. Tossing one end in the air, she whispered, "Ninpou: Busou no Atae." (Ninja Art: Gift of Armaments). Masses of metal staves rained down, into the waiting hands of the assembled clones. With a roar, the wave of Narutos began pummeling Mizuki, while one in particular grabbed Rose, obviously the real Naruto. "Come on! Join the fun!"

Rose elected instead to go over to Iruka and make sure he was all right. Seeing the smile on the chuunin's face, she said softly, "Naruto didn't have the scroll after he left the clearing, Iruka-sensei. I passed him a Henge disguised log just as he got out of sight."

Iruka looked over at her, and his eyes widened. "What did you do?"

Rose was confused for a moment, until she remembered what she had done that afternoon. "Oh, this?" She reached up to tap her forehead.

Or at least, she would have, if a plate of metal hadn't gotten in the way.

Suspended on her skin as though bolted to her skull was the metal plate of her Hitai-Ate, with its leaf symbol. Over her temples were two additional pieces, one with a hammer and anvil engraved on it, the other with a single delicately carved rose in half bloom A thin mesh of chain mail connected the three pieces across her forehead, but it had no other support. The plates were simply there, like giant metal freckles. The girl smiled sheepishly, as Naruto's clones dispersed, revealing a thoroughly beaten Mizuki, and a pile of cheap metal weapons. Naruto hauled the unconscious Chuunin over to the little group, and smiled at Rose's style.

"Clan tradition?" he asked, as he dropped Mizuki. Rose merely nodded, and the plates stayed firmly in place, the chains not making a sound. Naruto grinned back, and turned to Iruka.

The older, scarred Chuunin smiled, and said, "Naruto, close your eyes." Naruto did as he was bidden, and Iruka motioned for Rose to give him a hand. When Naruto's eyes opened again, he saw Iruka holding his goggles, and felt a weight around his head. Seeing Iruka's smile, he realized the older man didn't have a Hitai-Ate anymore. It all clicked, and Naruto's eyes widened.

"You mean..?" Iruka just nodded, and Rose smiled. "I did it! I passed! One step closer to my dream!"

Rose laughed, and gave him a pat on the head. "Good for you. Now help me gather up these things, I need my scrap metal back." Naruto laughed again, and the two made short work of sealing the weapons back into their storage scroll.

.oO0Oo.

Back in the Hokage's tower, the ANBU were still arguing over where the Uzumaki boy might have gone with the forbidden scroll. Joining them were the trio of Jounin who were to be instructors to the new Genin teams, as they had been plotting team divisions before the news came of the Scroll's theft. As the assembled shinobi debated where to look next, a quiet cough echoed from the door. They all turned to face the noise, and the Hokage smiled.

Iruka stood, supported by Naruto on his left side, with Rose supporting him on the right as well as carrying the scroll. Naruto had Mizuki slung over his free shoulder, and all three were grinning hugely. Iruka cleared his throat again, and said, "Hokage-sama, I am proud to announce that we have a tenth graduate this term from our Academy. For his bravery and cunning revealing and capturing an enemy Chuunin, and mastering the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, I was honored to present Uzumaki Naruto with his very own Hitai-Ate."

There were looks of awe all around the room as the assembled ANBU took in the fact that a student, not even a Genin at the time, had not only stolen the scroll, but learned the Kage Bunshin, and caught a Chuunin. Sarutobi nodded, and made a note in his ledger. "And Mizuki?"

"A traitor, Hokage-sama," Rose told him, bowing slightly. "We suspected he was plotting something when he attempted to play up to Naruto, though it is well known that Mizuki loathes Naruto. He directed Naruto to steal the scroll, and arrive at Training Ground 22 at 11:00 tonight, as an extra credit assignment to pass his Genin exam. Upon arriving, Mizuki revealed that he intended to steal the scroll for himself. During his accusations, he also stated that Naruto is a Jinchuuriki, the container of the Kyuubi no Kitsune." Ignoring the sharp intake of breath from the Hokage, she continued. "Naruto fled the area, dropping the scroll to me for safekeeping. He then led Mizuki into a trap, and used the Kage Bunshin to create, at my best estimate, 700 or more clones, and beat Mizuki into the state you see here, aided only in the fact that I had a variety of blunt weapons available in one of my storage scrolls with which to arm his clones."

The Hokage nodded, and spoke sharply to Rose and Naruto. "You understand why I made the law forbidding anyone to talk about Naruto's prisoner?"

"Because you did not want the children his age to make him an outcast because of their lack of understanding?" Rose ventured. Frowning, she added, "Not that it's done a lot of good, the civilian shopkeepers refuse him service, and the shinobi warn their children away because the shopkeepers have given him a false reputation as a vandal and a thief."

Sarutobi bowed his head. "That is true. I deeply wish people had seen you as the hero you should have been, Naruto-kun. Regardless, what is done, is done. And your behavior has shown marked improvement since you became friends with Rose-chan."

Naruto grinned. "No harm, no foul. So, does this mean I get to be a ninja now?"

"Report to the Academy tomorrow at ten in the morning, with the others. Kage Bunshin is a difficult technique to learn, though I suppose the extra chakra from your...resident...may be aiding you in that. I suggest that you do not teach it to others for a while, Naruto." The old man smiled at Rose's pout, and waved them away. "Get going, you've had a long day and you deserve a rest."

Rose and Naruto helped Iruka down the stairs and over to the hospital, while the Hokage and the Jounin trio remained in the office. Sarutobi stroked his thinning beard, and picked up his pipe. "It would appear we have a dilemma."

Asuma took a deep drag of his cigarette, and said, "You can't spare any other Jounin to make two two-man teams?"

"No," was the Hokage's reply. "We've heard rumors from the Desert about an alliance with whatever power is taking over in the Land of Rice. They have made no overt hostile intentions known, but Suna is the only real bastion of civilization in the desert, and we know how devious shinobi can be. We can't afford to break up any more Jounin teams."

"Pity," Kakashi said, while sitting in a chair and reading his little orange book. "Would've been nice to focus more on the Uchiha. He'll need the help when his Sharingan go active."

Asuma rolled his eyes. "My trio will be too tight knit to really function with Uzumaki. He and Yamanaka are bitter enemies to boot, one of 'em'll end up dead within a week. Though he and Nara seem to get on well enough, but we can't really afford to break up that sort of teamwork. Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi abilities just work too well together."

Kurenai frowned at that, but stated, "Despite his academy scores, I can tell he won't fit my trio either. Aburame won't say a word, but Inuzuka hates the Uzumaki boy's guts, and the Hyuuga has a horrible crush on him. Neither one of them would be able to work with him effectively, even on a D-rank mission."

The Sandaime Hokage frowned in thought, then brightened. "Kakashi." The ninja in question looked up, then groaned. Sarutobi nodded, a gleeful smile on his countenance. "You will have the four-man team. If nothing else, Haruno can teach him and the Forgefire can keep him in line. She did an admirable job these past three years, hopefully she will continue to do so."

"Why do I have to get the extra work?" Kakashi complained, still reading his book. Kurenai swiped the book from his hands in an eye blink, smirking.

"Because you're getting complacent, and because you'll have two intelligent Kunoichi to help you deal with him. You'll be able to spend more time with the Uchiha brat, and still get the same amount of work done." Then, she grinned. "Besides, I did some extra observation of all the potentials this year, at the suggestion of one of my friends. Uzumaki has been deliberately tanking his exams, all of them, since day one in the academy if his conversation with Forgefire was accurate."

Silence filled the room.

Sarutobi snorted, then began to laugh. "I had hoped one of you would notice that," he said, still chuckling. "Naruto and Rose come to me often, asking after new jutsu scrolls. I gave them the academy scrolls first, and later a few low-level Raiton and Suiton techniques. Combined with Rose's Forgefire abilities and incredible chakra control, and Naruto's superior chakra reserves, I believe it is the Uchiha who will be the drag on the team. Haruno Sakura shows talent as a healer, which is always useful on a heavy combat team like Kakashi's new Genin squad. For all its power, the Sharingan will have trouble beating the raw power of those two."

Kakashi scowled, but no one could see it through his mask. "They still have to pass my test."

.oO0Oo.

The next day, six the eight 'proper' graduates from Naruto's class were sitting in their old classroom, along with Rose, who was getting some questioning looks from the others regarding her unique headband design. When Naruto strolled in, wearing his headband, Rose smiled at him an waved him over to sit next to her. She was sitting one row behind Sasuke, who had merely nodded at her quiet respectful greeting. Naruto settled himself on Rose's left, in the middle seat of their bench, directly behind Sasuke. Ino and Sakura stormed in, arguing over who'd been first, then claimed the seats next to Sasuke, who rolled his eyes. Then, the Uchiha turned, and sneered. "I heard you'd failed, Uzumaki. Couldn't make a single Bunshin."

Naruto frowned, but Rose's hand on his shoulder reminded him to keep his temper. "Well, Uchiha, it turns out my family has their own bloodline, that gives us a whole bunch of chakra, but it's harder to control it. I have more than ten times as much as most shinobi, so it's obvious I'd have trouble with lesser jutsu like the Bunshin with my chakra control. But the Hokage heard about it, and gave me a make-up exam on the KAGE Bunshin, since he was one of the people who knew about my bloodline." Two other people in the class let out quiet gasps at that. "It's a Jounin level technique, because you need so much more chakra to create a SOLID clone instead of an illusion. After a few tries, I made seven hundred and twenty two, and still had enough left to Henge into Iruka-sensei and lecture myself."

Sasuke snorted again, and Inuzuka Kiba let out a bark of laughter. "Sure, Uzumaki, tell us another one!" the dog user called derisively.

Rose glowered at the boy, who yipped and was suddenly quiet. "It's true, I was there. You can even ask Iruka-sensei, he gave his own personal Hitai-ate to Naruto for doing so well." At that moment, the door opened, and Rose grinned. "Speak of the devil. Iruka-sensei, they don't believe Naruto's story about how he learned Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Iruka groaned. "Yes, it's true. In fact, learning and performing the jutsu at such a high level has pushed Uzumaki to the top of the class rankings." Sasuke and Sakura gaped openly at that, being number one and two respectively. "Now, I have your team assignments right here. Since we have ten graduates and only three instructors available, one team will have four members." He picked up the papers in front of him, and said, "Teams are Seven, Eight, and Ten. Team Ten is Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Chouji. Team Eight is Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, and Hyuuga Hinata. Team Seven is Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, Forgefire Rose, and Uzumaki Naruto." He put the papers down on the desk, and noted some depressed faces in the crowd. "These teams were selected to best compliment the strengths of their members. Because Naruto's graduation was announced after the teams had already been made, he was added to the team that best suited a heavy combat specialist. Your Jounin instructors will be in to collect you soon, and they will give you your orders. You are expected to obey those orders, and unfortunately I have no say in the matter. Good luck, all of you." He left, and two Jounins took out teams Eight and Ten, leaving only team Seven.

Rose gave Naruto a high-five. "Told you we'd get the good team. And with four of us, we can get more done quicker. Tenten-oneechan told me Genins get stuck with a lot of grunt-work, like weeding fields and running deliveries, and catching the Fire Daimyo's cat."

Naruto groaned. "That sucks. Can't we go on cooler missions, like saving people from evil thieves and stuff."

Rose sighed, and patted Naruto on the head, mussing his hair. "Poor Naruto, such big dreams, and so little thought. We need to learn more, train more, before we're ready for the more dangerous missions. Doing D-Ranks will give us time to hone our skills while still earning some money and doing the things that need to be done around the village."

Sakura just glared at Rose. "That's silly. Sasuke-kun doesn't need to waste his time with that sort of junk. He's way better than that. Naruto might have gotten lucky, but Sasuke's a genius!"

Rose blinked in surprise at the girl's hostility, but noted that Sasuke was smiling. "Haruno-san, if anybody needs the time to learn basic teamwork and communication skills, it's the two of you. Uchiha-san, while you are admittedly skilled, you can't guard an entire caravan of people by yourself. You think your clan name means you will be a great ninja no matter what, but you are still a Genin, and there are much stronger people in the world than you and I." Sasuke glared at her, but nodded. Rose turned fully to the seething pink-haired kunoichi. "And you, Haruno-san, are intelligent and have excellent control for your age, but if this is a heavy combat team, then you are out of place. You only rank higher than me because you have so little power, it is simplicity itself to control it. You might make a very good healer some day, but for now you are merely a walking, talking encyclopedia, useful enough when we need to know information about a place or item, but not much good in a fight." Rose was unsure where that last part had come from. She hadn't meant to piss off the other girl, just put her in the proper perspective.

"Oh yeah?" Sakura raged, eyes burning with anger. "You're one to talk, you hussy! You hang around with NARUTO because you can't make any REAL friends, and he's so pathetic he'll take anyone he can get!"

Naruto was stunned. Sakura had talked down to him before, but never before had he realized that she used his name as an insult. Hell, she didn't even throw -baka on his name when she talked to him! He stood up, growling and projecting killer intent as hard as he could. Sakura squeaked in fright, and turned to stare at him, eyes wide.

"Rose-chan," he ground out, his voice low and even, "has no friends BECAUSE she hangs out with me, because you people are all so afraid of me, for no good reason! I've never hurt anybody who didn't hurt me first. I've never insulted someone who didn't do it to me first. The villagers have called me a demon for as long as I can remember, even when I was three years old and still living in the orphanage! I never took anything that wasn't mine, never even asked for extra helpings at the orphanage, because I knew I wouldn't get them. Rose-chan is the only the third person who hasn't hated me the instant they heard my name, and you DARE to insult her in front of me?" Naruto's eyes narrowed, and Sakura flinched. "I see now your beauty really WAS only skin deep, Haruno-san." Sakura flinched again. Naruto hadn't called her by her last name since the first day at the academy.

Naruto turned to Sasuke. "And you seem to have forgotten that I tried to be friends with you, once. The first day you came back after your clan was destroyed, Rose and I tried to make sure you'd have the peace and quiet you wanted. Rose spent the entire day under a Henge, pretending to be you. I had to carry her home, she was so worn out. Because everyone likes to touch you, Uchiha. You think you have it bad? At least you HAD a family, and people who cared about you! For seven years, ever since I was an infant, the only person in the whole village who really cared about me was the Hokage! It's not like I could just go see him whenever I have a problem, you know? He's got other stuff to worry about." Naruto turned to Rose. "Then I met Tenten-chan's dad, and he was the first villager to look me in the eye and give me a chance. Tenten was friendly, but she had her own friends, and she was just getting ready to join the academy. And then Rose came along, and she didn't care one bit about who I was. She saw I needed someone, and she was there for me." Rose put a hand on Naruto's shoulder, whispering his name to try and calm him down, but he ignored her.

Unnoticed by the quartet of Genins, the door had opened at the start of their argument, and a man with gray hair and a mask stood there, watching and listening. As Naruto ranted, his single visible eye widened ever so slightly.

"Rose's entire village was slaughtered. She'd only been in Konoha a few weeks. And instead of wallowing in her grief, like the almighty Emo Boy here, she put it aside to help me. You know she bought me my first set of clothes that wasn't bright orange? I've always hated this color." He picked at one of his sleeves, frowning at the orange jumpsuit, and turned his glare back to Sakura. "And you have the NERVE to insult her, one of the only people who's ever given a damn about me?" His right hand formed a fist, trembling with barely contained rage. "If we weren't teammates, I'd bury you. In fact, if you EVER do something so stupid again, I WILL bury you in a grave so deep they'll need a Stone Nin to find your body! No one, and I mean NO ONE, hurts my precious people and gets away with it." Sakura whimpered, and nodded. Even Sasuke looked a bit stunned by the ferocity of Naruto's gaze.

Kakashi stepped up behind the group, coughing. "As touching as your protectiveness is, Naruto-kun, I would prefer my students did not fight each other." When the Genins turned to face him, he said, "Let's head up to the roof. Maybe some fresh air will help clear your heads, and we can introduce ourselves in a civilized fashion." With that, he flipped out the window and vanished.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Figures we get stuck with the crazy one."

When they arrived on the roof, Rose spotted their sensei sitting near the edge, reading a small orange book. Loudly, she stated, "Yep, there's only one man who reads 'Icha Icha Paradise' walking down the streets of Konoha." At the looks of the others, she rolled her eyes. "Don't ANY of you do your homework on your missions? And Naruto, I know you weren't slacking off on me, so I forgive you." Pointing at the gray haired man, who had gone back to his book, she said, "You are Hatake Kakashi, also known as the 'Copy Ninja', and one of three non-Uchiha to ever have a Sharingan."

Sasuke started visibly, then asked, "Is this true?"

Kakashi sighed, put his book away, and looked at Rose with his one visible eye. "And how do you know all that?"

Rose rolled her eyes again. "Please. It's all a matter of public record. Konoha is so stupid like that, really. All the non-classified records go straight to the library database, where any student can go and look at them. You, Sarutobi Asuma, and Yuuhi Kurenai are the only Jounins not listed in the database as assigned to an active duty team, so you were obviously our instructors. Your mission and advancement record is also easy to find, though most of it is classified. Odd, that the mission that cost you your teammate wasn't one of them. Besides that, your Sharingan is listed in the Bingo Book." Rose was smug, and for good reason.

"You," Kakashi stated, "are not shinobi-raised. Only a civilian usually thinks to just ask for a piece of information instead of stealing it. Good for you, you've just thwarted every last one of Konoha's spy protections and learned more than most spies would ever get, because they'd sneak into the secure archives and try to steal the hard copy." Rose smiled, and Kakashi said, "So, since you all know who I am, remind me who you are, and tell me something about yourself. Likes, dislikes, ambitions, something like that."

Sakura jumped at the chance. "I'm Haruno Sakura. I like..." she trailed off, glancing meaningfully at Sasuke. "Umm, yeah. I don't like people who bother Sasuke-kun, and my ambition is to become a great Kunoichi."

Sasuke went next, after an elbow from Naruto. "Uchiha Sasuke. I don't have any real likes or dislikes. But my ambition is to rebuild my clan, and to kill a certain man."

Rose raised an eyebrow. "I think everyone in the village knows you want to kill your brother Itachi, Sasuke-san. Saying his name won't make him suddenly appear, or make him any stronger." Sasuke just frowned at her, so Rose shrugged. "Forgefire Rose, last of my village. You don't need to know my likes or dislikes, but my ambition is to revive my clan's lost skill as shinobi. We were too complacent as blacksmiths, and we paid for it."

Naruto went last. "Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen, but everyone knows that. I don't like it when people insult me or my friends. And my ambition is to be the best shinobi I can be, and maybe become Hokage some day, to prove that I'm more than a just a jail cell for the Kyuubi no Kitsune."

Rose snickered as Sakura and Sasuke's eyes widened, jaws agape. Kakashi groaned, and put a hand over his face. "You aren't supposed to go around telling people about your prisoner, Uzumaki," the Jounin said. "There are people out there who would try to take that kind of power for their own use."

Naruto nodded, and said, "Yeah, but we're teammates. We need to know ourselves so we can work together. I've got so much chakra I don't know what to do with it all, and if the seal starts breaking down or something, they'll need to know what to do to keep the Kyuubi from getting out." He turned to the other two, and pointed at them with a glare. "And that does not mean you should kill me. Hokage-sama gave me a letter from the Fourth, and he said that if I die too early, the Kyuubi might be able to escape again. It's a long shot, and I don't particularly care one way or the other, but he'll probably get you first."

Shaking with fear, Sakura nodded. "Maybe I should start studying those medic techniques, then."

Naruto smiled. "Good idea, Haruno-san. Never hurts to have a healer. Especially on a combat team."

Kakashi's eye narrowed. "And what make you say that, Uzumaki?"

Rose answered for him. "Let's see... A chakra furnace the size of Fire Country, a Weapons-Mistress-in-Training, and an Uchiha? If Sasuke-san is good for nothing else, his Sharingan can analyze the enemy for Naruto to demolish, never mind that he's a skilled fighter himself. If Haruno takes care of getting the wounded back in the fight with me to run defense around her, we're almost a Jounin, but with better stamina since one of us can rest while the others work."

Sasuke nodded. It stung his pride to hear the girl dismiss him like that, but she was right: compared to the Kyuubi's power, even his Sharingan were mere tricks. "She has a point, Sensei. And we're the only four-person team, we're more flexible."

"Well then, we're going to see just how good you are. Be at training ground 13 tomorrow at 8:00 sharp, for a survival training test." Kakashi paused dramatically. "And don't eat breakfast."

Sakura piped up with, "Why wouldn't we want to eat breakfast?"

"Because you'll just throw up," Kakashi said grimly, then he vanished in a puff of smoke.

Rose rolled her eyes as she got to her feet. "Show off. Come on Naruto."

"More practice?" he whined. "I wanted to go celebrate!"

"We still need to see if I can detect you hiding in your Kage Bunshins or not, dork. There wasn't enough time last night. Besides, I need your help with something." Rose began to stride off, about to jump down from the roof, when Sakura asked, "You said you were the last of your village?"

Rose looked back at her, surprised. "I thought you knew, either that or my unique Hitai-Ate should have given it away.. I'm originally from Kengakure no Sato, in Tetsu no Kuni. Our clan were blacksmiths, and we ran a small shinobi village. My father's cousin betrayed our village and sold his service to a warlord who invaded us. Only my mother and I escaped, and she died from wounds right after we arrived."

Sasuke nodded. "That's why you helped me after Itachi." He flinched involuntarily, but added, "You've been there."

"Too right," Rose replied with a smile. "I've had more time to get over it than you, obviously, but seriously, brooding won't help you get your life back. Smile, have fun with your friends! Living is the best revenge, that's what Okaasan told me."

Sasuke frowned, and muttered, "I'll think about it." He stepped off the roof into a tree, and from there to the ground, heading home. Sakura, after a moment's hesitation, followed.

.oO0Oo.

"So what was that line you fed them about the fox escaping when you die? I thought Sandaime-sama said it would die with you, now that its chakra is so bonded to yours."

Naruto let out some yipping laughter, sounding a bit like his prisoner for a moment. "Because they'd have gotten freaked out if something happened, and tried to kill me. Now, they'll just knock me out and drag my ass out of the fire."

Rose smiled. "When did you get to be so devious, Naruto-kun?"

"I had an excellent teacher, Rose-chan."

Arriving back at the Tekkou home and shop, Rose led Naruto to the back, stopping in the forge room. "I've been working on this for weeks, in secret," Rose told him as she settled into a relaxed stance in an open area in the center of the floor, looking around her to gauge distances. "You remember those lectures we had on chakra strings and puppet masters?"

"Yeah, somethin' about how you could use one to control people if you were tricky enough, or build a big contraption to fight your opponents." The boy scratched his head, confused. "Why is that important? I thought puppets had to be mad of wood, or they got too heavy to move around?"

Rose smiled. "My clan techniques will let me move metal by pure will. With a lot more practice, and more chakra, I could throw kunai without even having to touch them. But puppet mastery is one of the few battle techniques our clan continued to improve on after we gave up being shinobi. The Betrayer was continuing that research in my parents' generation, but even his advancements are in the scrolls." She paused then, turning to face Naruto. "It'll take a while to get everything ready, there's a lot of seals and jutsus that need to be done before I can really start doing something, but I've got a start."

"Is this a clan thing, or could anyone do it?" Naruto was watching carefully, all his focus on the girl before him. "I know the Hokage said not to teach anyone the Kage Bunshin, but I can at least show you how it works."

Rose nodded. "I suppose anyone could use this version, in theory, but the complete technique works best for a Forgefire. If you weren't you'd have to be really strong, physically and with chakra, to pull it off. Start doing weights, and you might be ready for it in a year." She put her hands to her temples, where the smaller plates of her modified Hitai-ate were located, and said, "Now watch. Kinzokuton: Unfolding Iron Petals."

There was a sharp spike of chakra, and a screech of metal, and the plates seemed to expand rapidly, enveloping Rose's hands and dripping down her cheeks. In a few moments, the liquid-like metal plating had coated her entire body in overlapping hinged petals of armor, from gauntlets to greaves. Only her face was uncovered, with two lines of scales trailing from her Hitai-ate down her cheeks to the base of her jaw, where the covering started in earnest. The armor had formed under her clothing, and appeared to be molded to fit her body like a second skin, made of tiny scales that, upon closer examination, resembled cherry-blossom petals. There was a soft jingling sound as she took a step forward, the individual pieces of her armor clanging off each other. Her hair flowed out from the gaps in the smaller scales covering her scalp, still done up in finely woven strands capped with brass beads.

"Well, it's not as fast as I'd like, but the coverage is complete enough. And it's plenty flexible, just like it should be." She stretched her arms and legs, doing some basic taijutsu to test her range of motion. Naruto watched, curious.

"All that out of those little squares? Did you use storage seals on them?"

"Yeah. I had to forge the entire suit, then seal it up in the hitai-ate. I could have made a full covering, but I didn't want to block my vision."

Naruto stood, and tossed a kunai at Rose. It clanged loudly off the armor, causing little more than a grunt from the impact. Nodding, he gathered his tools, and said. "Now the Kage Bunshin, right?"

Rose nodded, and pressed the squares again. Her armor flowed back into them, like a snake shedding its skin. The duo stepped outside, and Naruto summoned four clones.

Rose looked between them for a moment, and pointed. "It's harder to see. Somehow, you gave them all real kunai, I think. But only one of you has moving iron, indicating blood."

Naruto frowned, and the jutsu dropped. "At least someone can tell us where to hit if we get caught off guard. But I didn't pass out real kunai when I did the jutsu."

Rose raised an eyebrow. "Maybe your version of the technique creates artificial metals and cloth, to simulate the real thing more accurately?"

"Maybe. It's weird. When I'm doing the technique, there's nothing odd at all. But when I release it, my eyes go all funny for a second."

Rose pondered that. "Make another clone, then go stand outside, but leave the clone here." Naruto did so, and Rose looked at the clone. "She walked over to it, and whispered, "The answer is forty-two." Then she whacked it on the head, dispersing it.

"Naruto!" She called. As the boy wandered back in, she asked, "What is the answer?"

"Uh, forty-two?" Naruto replied. "Hey, wait, what?"

Rose grinned. "Your eyes feel funny because when the clones disappear, everything they saw goes right into your head. I told the clone 'the answer is forty-two' and your knew it when I blew up your clone."

"Huh," Naruto said, thinking aloud. "That wasn't in the scroll anywhere. Maybe it's something to do with," he pointed at his stomach, not willing to say the name.

"Could be," Rose said with a nod. "Now let's get some sleep. Long day tomorrow." As Naruto left, she added. "Wear your camo outfit. And make sure you eat a good breakfast."

Naruto frowned. "Sensei said not to eat breakfast. We'll just throw it up."

Rose shook her head. "Better to have the extra energy and lose a meal than to go hungry. Besides that, Tenten-oneechan says Gai-sensei complains about how sadistic Kakashi-sensei is, and we both know how crazy Gai-sensei can be. The old cyclops is probably baiting a trap, and I'm not getting caught in it."

Naruto nodded again. "Ichiraku's at eight? We'll have an hour to digest before Sensei told us to arrive."

"Okay, but no ramen. Healthy breakfasts only." Rose banked the coals in the forge for the night, and said, "Now get going, Naruto."

Naruto grinned, sketched a western-style bow, and left. Rose went upstairs to her room, noting that Tenten was already asleep, as was her father. She too slid under her sheets, and quickly fell into a dreamless sleep. Her final thought: "I'll make you proud, Okaasan. No Iwa nin is ever getting the better of a Forgefire again."

Author's Notes:

Well, now we're starting to get to the fun stuff. I don't mind telling my readers that the scene which eventually led to writing Forgefire Chronicles takes place in the Chuunin exams, but immediately after I dreamt it up (quite literally, as most of my stories start from odd dreams or idle thoughts), I followed it with another scene in the Wave country arc, and then a scene during the Genin trial. Next chapter should be a lot more action, and the first of Rose's trio of serious Kekkei Genkai jutsu.

It occurs to me that some people might think Rose is a bit overpowered compared to most shinobi, especially after the events to take place next chapter, and some of the powers I have plotted out for her in the future. Keep in mind she's been training in Chakra manipulation for a long time. Also, though I haven't really made enough of a point of it yet, she IS a blacksmith, from a family of the same, and thus keeps in very good shape doing her work, and is significantly stronger than most kunoichi, and several of the males in Naruto's class.

I'm taking a slightly liberal view of how Kage Bunshin works, by including some non-canon ideas that have become popular, chief among these the idea that the clones' knowledge transfers back to Naruto, though not any physical benefits like reaction times or increased strength. Also the creation of semi-solid objects out of chakra, though I'm attributing that to demonic power, the Kyuubi no Kitsune being the incarnation of fire and earth. Naruto's only good enough to make replicas of things he already has on his person, but later on he might improve some.

As always, reviews are appreciated, but not necessary. I'm now employed full-time, but in front of a computer all day with long empty periods, so I might be writing more and more frequently. I refuse to post half-complete chapters, but I will hopefully be getting more things out there. I've got a bunch of older stuff sitting on disk waiting for a rewrite, I might work on that when I get writer's block on this, to help move it along. 


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